


More Than Strangers

by galaxy_saturn



Series: Fuse With Me [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Coran Is a McClain, Dystopian Sci-Fi AU, Fashionista Lance, Fusion AU (My Own Spin On It Sorry Steven Universe Fans), Gay Keith (Voltron), Honestly Pretty Slow In This Part, Illegal Dance Competition AU, Keith Adopts a Cat, Keith and Lance Are Gay From The Beginning, Keith and Shiro Are Half-Brothers, Keith's an Asshole, Keith's an Idiot, Labeled As Mature Because of Concepts and Intensity, Lance Is Adopted, Lance Works At a Small Grocer, Lots and Lots of Twists Okay, M/M, More Tags Will Be Added As The Story Continues and I Have Better Ideas For Tags, Mutual Pining, Mystery, Secrets, What's new
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-08
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-07 05:22:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 68,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8784760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxy_saturn/pseuds/galaxy_saturn
Summary: "Keith kissed a stranger.""You kissed a stranger?!""He kissed a stranger."
In a society where everyone is labeled as either a Normie or a Fusee, some people are able to fuse with others who have matching personality traits. Fusees have two categories, though; "Stable" and "Unstable", based on personality traits. Unstables are able to balance each other out if their traits fit together like a puzzle piece, otherwise things go badly. Everyone used to be a Fusee, but after a massive incident, fusing was banned, and the amount of people who used their ability vanished from government knowledge; but of course, that means people would find a way to do it illegally. In the form of dance, Fusions battle for coins, known as palluras, in a hidden arena.
Katie, Keith, Tsuyoshi, and Lance are Fusees. Katie and Tsuyoshi have been dancing partners for over a year, while Lance and Keith are just beginning. Katie sets up Keith and Lance, and well... it's interesting for both of them.





	1. Let's Do This

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so  
> for those of you who've read Let's Do This, the one-shot  
> this is the long awaited (actually less than a month lmao) continuation  
> except i'm not done with the second chapter yet ahaha
> 
> anyway  
> for those of you who didn't read the one-shot  
> i mean, yeah, i put it as general but of course there's swearing and of course it's gay. i mean, um, klance, hello  
> i haven't seen Steven Universe, so no this is not fusion like in Steven Universe  
> i hope you enjoy anyway
> 
> so  
> plan so far is that i'll update either every Tuesday or every other Tuesday (i know it's a Wednesday, i was planning on posting yesterday but i got sick)  
> depends on the chapter content?? like, if it's a chapter leaning more towards the sci-fi aspect (like chapter 2 sor r y) then it'll probably take another week while if it's more of a silly chapter it'll only take a week (assumably)  
> every chapter will be around 7,500 to 8,000 words with outliers, of course  
> i mean, i'm a high school student and a college level pianist, so i'm pretty busy  
> but, this'll probably have a shit ton of chapters since hoo boy do i have a lot planned for this story
> 
> sorry i'm a very rambly person  
> i hope you all like it !! thank you for reading, i really appreciate it <3

The green moon was high in the muddy purple sky, which was just barely light enough to not be considered black and was filled with brown clouds. The main streets weren’t completely quiet at this late hour, nor were they busy. A few horns honked in the distance, there was the sound of tires screeching, and the sound of cars riding along the roads lay underneath the whispering wind. The backstreets were another story; completely dark and eery, unwelcoming, the streets stayed silent aside from the wind and the creaking of old doors or hissing of alley cats -- or rather, the whirring of the gears and the hissing of the steam being released from the loose robots meant to represent cats.

One particular backstreet was important, and was kept dark. It was solely meant for pedestrians, not being very wide in length as it went through the space between two tall buildings. It would’ve been difficult to walk through it beside another person, even. The walkway was made of rectangular red stones and, for whatever reason, had a ton of cardboard boxes scattered through it. The boxes made it hard to navigate through the dark street.

“Is anyone else getting the chills?” someone complained as he made his way through the small backstreet, two people following behind him cautiously. His tone was hushed.

“Yeah,” one of the other two people responded shakily, quiet like the first speaker. “It’s not usually this dark back here.”

“You two are such babies,” a higher-pitched voice scoffed, following the other two’s example in terms of volume level.

“We are not!” the second speaker argued defensively.

“At least we aren’t short like you,” the first speaker retaliated at the high-pitched third.

“I will kick you,” the third warned. “Don’t test me.”

“Can we just hurry up?” the second asked in a whine.

“Seriously, can’t they put some street lights back here? Or lights on the sides of the buildings?” the first continued to complain.

“Do you want everyone to be caught and sent to jail?” the third sassed.

The first simply grunted at the third’s comment.

“Guys! I can feel it!” the second suddenly whispered excitedly.

“Feel what?” the first questioned, utterly confused.

“Yep, I can feel it too,” the third put in.

“Feel what?” the first repeated, more anxiously.

“The shield. It’s nearby,” the second explained.

“The shield?” The first was still quite confused. He stopped in his tracks, turning to the two behind him.

“Uh-oh,” the second murmured worriedly, standing before the first along with the third at his side.

“Are you sure you’re not a Normie?” the third asked.

“If I were one, why would I be hanging out with _you?_ ” the first noted.

“Because you have no one better to hang out with,” the third answered in a slightly annoyed tone. “Now come on, we’re going to be late. You took too much time on your nails.”

“I couldn’t just go dancing with my nails blank! That’s a crime against appearance!” the first blurted quite loudly.

“Shh!” the third spat at the first eagerly.

“Don’t be so loud while we’re here! I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want to go to jail,” the second whispered.

“Let’s get going. Come on,” the third urged, making her way past the two boys with her.

The boys followed behind her silently, still nervous about the dark pathway. Suddenly, her figure was outlined by blue light, her image wavered, and then she disappeared.

“Where did she go?!” the first shrieked.

“Calm down, Lance. Katie’s fine. She’s inside the shield now,” the second explained. “Just walk forward.”

Lance gulped, nodding hesitantly as he took a step forward. For a moment, all he could see was blue -- neon blue light. Then, after another step, a scene waved in front of him. Another step and he found himself standing at the entrance to a tall dome building. Two street lamps stood on either side of the gravel pathway which he was now standing on, which made it easier to see the dirty-blonde-haired girl standing in front of him and glaring up at him through her circular glasses.

“The arena’s already open, so we aren’t going to get first choice for seating,” Katie chastised. Despite her intimidating tone, she wasn’t intimidating at all with her round face and short height of 5’1”. Her less-than-shoulder-length mess of hair also took away from the intimidation since it was messy in a cute sort of way, not a badass way. Her brown eyes were a warm, light brown, which shone in the lighting behind her round, black-framed glasses. Her pale skin seemed like a bright yellow in the artificial lighting under the green moon. She was wearing a white t-shirt along with green shorts and black sneakers.

The tan-skinned, blue-eyed, 6’1” boy glared back down at the girl. “It’s not my fault you didn’t give me a good amount of time before we needed to leave to do my makeup and nails.” He crossed his arms and held his chin up defensively. He was wearing a gray t-shirt with short blue, pale blue athletic pants, and gray and black sneakers. Despite his normal apparel, his eyelids sparkled thanks to eyeshadow, his eyelashes were enlarged thanks to mascara, and his nails were bright pink thanks to nail polish.

“Do you try at all to hide the fact that you’re gay?” Katie questioned.

“I’m bi,” Lance corrected.

The other boy that was with them finally appeared, Lance and Katie finally being able to clearly see him again. His skin was dark, his eyes were dark brown, his hair was black, and he stood at a height of 6’3”. He was wearing a green vest over a yellow shirt, beige pants, and black hiking boots, which apparently he could dance well in.

Katie turned her glaring gaze to the boy. “What took you so long?”

“I thought I dropped my chip,” the boy replied.

“Tsuyoshi!” a voice called, startling all three of them. They all turned to the entrance to the building, where a girl was holding one of the doors open. She was giant compared to Katie, standing at a height of 5’10”. She had olive skin, hazel eyes, and light brown hair put into two pigtails. The chattering of lots of people seeped from the open door.

“Shay!” the boy replied jubilantly over the racket coming from inside, smiling and waving at the girl.

“Come! You are late! I have to close up soon,” She spoke a bit oddly, and her accent made it obvious that English wasn’t her first language.

Tsuyoshi, Katie, and Lance quickly made their way to the door.

“I’m bringing in a guest on my membership,” Tsuyoshi informed Shay, handing her a small, neon green chip.

Shay took the chip, placing her pointer finger on a line of metal columns that were on one edge of the little chip. A screen appeared above the chip, and she began poking at it, causing the menus to change and certain things to pop up.

“You will be using your usual name, correct?” Shay asked Tsuyoshi.

“Yep,” he answered simply, smiling at her. His cheeks were tinted red.

Lance looked over at Katie and muttered, “Has she caught on? That’s the most obvious he’s ever been.”

“I heard that,” Tsuyoshi warned.

Lance watched as Shay typed in _Hunk_ under a picture of Tsuyoshi. She then clicked on a few more things, a blank profile picture popping up. She looked up at Lance.

“What name would you like to use tonight?” Shay asked Lance.

“Name?” Lance questioned with an eyebrow cocked.

“Think of a nickname,” Katie instructed.

“Uhhh… Tailor,” Lance decided.

“Tailor?” Katie questioned in a confused and somehow condescending tone.

“I can really thread the needle while dancing,” Lance said with a proud smirk.

There was a pause, Shay and Katie both looking at him -- Shay blankly and Katie disappointedly.

“McLame. He’ll use McLame,” Katie decided for him in a blank tone, though her expression stayed disappointed.

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?!” Lance exclaimed, offended.

Shay typed it in, but then she shook her head slowly. “I am sorry, but someone is already using that name, somehow…”

Katie looked even more disappointed. “Lancelot, then,” Katie suggested.

“Lancelot?” Lance asked, very obviously offended.

“It’s a good idea to start with a nickname that sounds close enough to yours that you’ll still respond,” Katie informed him as Shay entered some information.

“Lancelot is able to be used. Katie, I’m ready for yours now,” Shay said, the screen having disappeared from above the green chip she was now handing back to ‘Hunk’.

Katie handed her a chip that looked like a duplicate of Hunk’s.

“Do all the chips look the same?” Lance questioned.

“No. Depends on whether or not you’re a Stable or an Unstable,” Hunk answered.

“What?” Lance continued, having no idea what Hunk was talking about.

“You’ll see when you go through the test -- if you decide to become a member after a few visits,” Hunk replied.

“Alright, you are all set, Hunk, Lancelot, and Pidge. Good luck tonight! I am sure you will do wonderfully,” Shay encouraged with a smile.

Hunk’s cheeks turned a light pink as his already-wide smile widened. “Thanks!” He walked in beside Pidge.

Lance walked behind them, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking around at all the people in the somewhat-dark building he’d walked into. The building’s lighting was dim, so it was hard to make out faces in the crowd. There were seemingly people of all different sorts, wearing all different apparel and makeup. He attempted to stay close to Katie and Tsuyoshi, who he assumed everyone here knew as Pidge and Hunk, but it was hard. The dome was empty for the most part, aside from the massive amount of people packed into the unlit areas of the dome. The middle was lit, though, since that’s where all the lights hung above a large metal cage. There was one person standing in the cage, nodding over at the DJ in the shadows on the opposite side of the cage from the side Lance was currently facing. He pushed his way through the crowd, intrigued by the mess of black hair falling down the figure’s neck. He thought that for a girl’s hairstyle choice, it was a very old-fashioned one, but that it would look good. He got closer, excited to see the girl’s face, but then the person turned and Lance realized the ‘girl’ was actually a young man with a mullet. He had pale yellow skin, a height of 5’9”, and was wearing a dark gray tank top over black skinny jeans. He had red markings on his arms that seemed like scars. He also had a yellow strip of cloth tied around the upper part of his right arm and black fingerless gloves. His eyes were turned down, so Lance couldn’t see them at the moment. Suddenly, the squeal of an unhappy microphone blared throughout the room, silencing everyone, a woman then speaking into the microphone.

“Sorry, sorry!” Her accent was different than Lancelot’s, Hunk’s, or Pidge’s. It was close to a British accent, meaning she had to be from a different continent than Voltrago. “Alright, let’s get the first test of the day started! We only have two guests today, so let’s see how these two newcomers perform!”

“Unstable! Unstable!” the crowd suddenly started chanting.

“I don’t understand why everyone finds Unstables more amusing when they usually ruin things,” the woman muttered, unaware that she could be heard. She then spoke out to the audience, “That’s enough! Let the newcomer concentrate!”

The crowd shushed as if it’s what they knew it was best for them. Lance was honestly surprised that a crowd as large as it was could be quiet like it was at the moment.

Music suddenly started playing through the large speakers. The young man started moving. At first, it didn’t seem like dancing -- just simply movement -- but it quickly turned into complicated footwork and coordinated arm movements.

Lance couldn’t take his eyes off the man as he put on a show, using up the entirety of the cage -- which Lance guessed was about the size of normal theater stage.

After a good three and a half minutes, the man was done dancing. He didn’t seem fazed as he stood in his last pose while the crowd burst out in cheers. A word flickered in a neon orange light above the cage on all sides, so anyone could read it; _Unstable_. The man walked through the now-opened door of the cage.

“Kogane is an Unstable! Alright, next is… Lancelot?” The woman announcing said ‘Lancelot’ slowly, in a confused tone.

Lance stepped up to the cage, walking past the man referred to as Kogane. Their eyes met, and Lance couldn’t help but be shocked by Kogane’s eyes. They were purple.

He shook the thought from his head, making his way to the cage. There was another man holding the door to the cage open. He had black hair, cut quite short, with bleached bangs so that they were completely white, brown eyes, a height of 6’4”, pale skin, and he was wearing a black vest over gray pants. Lance couldn’t help but notice that the man also had a scar from the top of one cheek, over his nose, and over his other cheek as well as what seemed like a robotic arm. Or maybe it was just amor.

“Just for the record, my friend chose the name for me,” Lance defended himself as he approached the man standing at the door. Even though his appearance was quite intimidating, the man’s grin was welcoming.

“Well, good luck, kiddo,” the man supported.

“I don’t need luck,” Lance stated proudly as he stepped into the cage with a smirk of a grin.

Lance made his way to the middle of the cage as the crowd hushed again.

“What song do you want to dance to?”

“Is _Colors_ by Halsey available?” Lance asked.

The man nodded. “Sure is. Remember to have fun!” With a smile, the man closed the door to the cage and walked off, back to the DJ.

“Alright, guest number two!” the woman from before announced.

The song began and Lance’s body began flying. His body seemed to move on its own, his feet and arms moving without his brain really thinking about what he was doing. Before he knew it, the song was over, and he was barely holding a pose, gasping for air. He never understood why he had such trouble catching his breath after dancing in front of others since he adored the attention. The man from before opened the door to the cage and Lance left as quickly as possible to get out of the spotlight. He didn’t need to be embarrassed in front of an entire crowd about his lung capacity.

As if they’d read Lance’s mind, a voice suddenly informed him, “Your lung capacity is fine, which is obvious since you can move your body like that for so long. But you’re tensing your upper body while performing. It was different when you were simply walking in. Try to relax more.”

Lance, shocked that someone was talking to him and he was able to hear them over the roaring crowd, turned to find Kogane looking forward at the cage, but standing right next to him.

“S-sorry, did you say something?” Lance stammered, unsure if it was Kogane had been the one talking to him or not.

“You need to relax your upper body while dancing. Keep the confidence you have in yourself while walking when you’re dancing,” Kogane said, turning and locking eyes with Lance.

“Lancelot! That was awesome!” Pidge’s voice called, her then slamming into Lance to get his attention.

Lance, displeased by his now pained side, narrowed his eyes down at her. “Was crashing into me really necessary?”

“How else would I have gotten you to look down at me?” Pidge pointed out.

“Lancelot is an Unstable!” the woman over the speakers announced suddenly, the crowd then going wild. They quickly hushed, though, as the woman continued. “Since both of our two guests are Unstables, we’ll pair them together to raise the prize by three hundreds palluras! Who’s willing to compete against these two?”

The entirety of the crowd screamed some form of ‘me’ or ‘us’. Lance cringed and from the corner of his eyes, he spotted Kogane covering his ears with an annoyed expression.

“Alright, let’s see who will go against the newcomers!” There was a pause as names appeared above the cage, changing very quickly. They began slowly, and then stopped. _Pidge_ and _Hunk_ glowed in green above the cage.

“And the competitors will be Pidge and Hunk, newcomers of last month, who placed first last week! Good luck to you, newcomers. You’re up against more than you think,” the woman warned over the speakers. “I, you DJ, Allura, will be picking the song for this dance. Fusees Pidge and Hunk, take your positions! You’re fusing first.”

Pidge smirked up at Lance. “Good luck, McLame.”

“Just call me Lancelot,” Lance growled as she skipped off with Hunk, obviously happy with herself for annoying Lance.

Lance turned around to face the cage again, awkwardly standing next to Kogane. He was looking forward at the cage as well. Pidge and Hunk took a pose, back to back with their arms crossed in front, and then when the music started, they turned around and latched their hands. They began moving together, their arms and legs working with each other as they glided from one side of the cage to the other, doing various things such as Pidge twirling and Hunk rearranging the position of his arms in ways that somehow worked out. Before anyone knew it, a green light enveloped them.

Lance, having had his eyes glued on them, felt someone tugging on his left sleeve. He turned to look at Kogane, who was now looking up at him.

“We’re on in a moment. Let’s do this,” Kogane mouthed to Lance before they both looked over at their opponent once the music ended. Instead of Pidge and Hunk, who’d been in the cage a moment ago, were nowhere to be seen. Instead, a new boy stood before them. The boy had tan-skin, brown eyes, a mess of brown hair, and a height of 5’7”. He was wearing a red vest over a black shirt over beige khakis and green sneakers. He also had a yellow sweatband.

The boy was let out of the cage, and a new name glowed above the cage; _Punk._

“Um, hi, guys.” The boy smiled nervously at Lance and Kogane, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. His voice was barely loud enough for Lance and Kogane to hear over the crowd, and they were standing right in front of him.

Lance and Kogane glanced at each other.

“We’ll be okay?” Lance mouthed. “This won’t be a challenge at all, right?”

Kogane shrugged, then grinning. “We’ll try. Let’s do this,” he mouthed back, causing Lance to smile in return.

They made their way into the cage. Kogane pointed to where he wanted Lance to stand and demonstrated the pose he wanted Lance to start in. Lance obeyed, not knowing what else to do. _Just let my body flow,_ Lance reminded himself.

The music started. Lance immediately popped up, but Kogane had stayed down. Lance didn’t let that throw him off. He moved his way over to Lance. The song that was playing was very expressive and soft so far, simply being a violin carrying a tune over soft harmonies in a piano, so Lance made his movements as graceful as possible. He placed a hand on Kogane’s shoulder once he was close enough, and Kogane got up, hooking his hand in Lance’s and suddenly pulling Lance to the side and Kogane started to move. Lance attempted to keep up with Kogane’s movements, though it was quite difficult. It was difficult enough so that the song ended and they stood side by side.

“Oh my,” Allura muttered into the microphone. She then asked, “Want to give it another shot?”

Lance looked at Kogane, but Kogane immediately answered, “Yes.” It being the first time Lance had heard someone speak from inside the cage, Lance nearly jumped from shock. The voice of anyone speaking in the cage was projected, as though they had microphones.

“With the same song?” Allura continued.

Kogane immediately shook his head.

“Do I get a say in this?” Lance questioned unhappily.

Kogane finally looked over at Lance. “I’ve been watching my brother do this for six years. Trust me. I know what I’m doing. If we’re going to fuse, we have to trust each other.”

“I don’t even know you!” Lance exclaimed.

“Just trust me. I won’t drop you if I somehow end up cradling you in my arms,” Kogane reassured jokingly with a grin, though Lance felt like it was being implied that Lance might hurt himself.

“Alright, take your places!” Allura instructed.

Lance and Kogane took their places. This time, they stood facing each other. Kogane grinned at Lance, which Lance couldn’t help but return. The music started again, and again they attempted to dance together, but it was sloppy and their movements weren’t in any way synchronized.

“One last shot?” Allura asked once the song ended, Kogane and Lance both displeased as they stood separately in the cage.

Kogane nodded.

“What are we going to do this time?” Lance questioned Kogane.

“Just trust me,” Kogane repeated.

Lance sighed, but what choice did he have? He came here to fuse, not waste people’s time. _One last chance._

He and Kogane started in their original positions, but Kogane mouthed to him, “I’ll start.” Lance nodded in return.

The music began, a different song once again. This last time, it was a remix of _Fireflies_ by Owl City -- the remix done by Said The Sky. Lance had never heard it before, but he immediately fell in love with it. Kogane tapped his shoulder and he found himself moving easily to the song, more in synch with Kogane than he had been either of the other tries. They somehow moved together as the song continued, their movements seeming more choreographed and meant to be put together. But, as the song was ending, Kogane hooked his hands in Lance’s again and suddenly Lance was pulled close to Kogane. They were close enough that their lips met.

That’s when it happened -- an orange light enveloped them. Next thing they knew, they were no longer separate people. Instead, they were two voices inside the same head.

_What the hell was that for?!_ Lance screamed.

_It was all I could think of! I’m sorry,_ Kogane’s voice responded.

_Why did that work, of all things?!_ Lance continued with his screeching.

_Could you calm down? We’ve fused; that’s what we were aiming for. Let’s finish this and win,_ Kogane urged.

Lance sighed internally. _Yeah. Let’s do this._

“The two newcomers, both Unstables, fused successfully! Alright!” Allura exclaimed joyfully over the speakers. “Now let’s get the real show started! Punk, make your way into the cage with… Klance.”

_Klance?_ Lance questioned. He thought about looking up at the top of the cage, but he couldn’t move. _Wait, why can’t I move?!_

_I can’t read all of your thoughts, and this body can’t move without both of us wanting to do the same thing,_ Kogane explained.

_Damn, that’s complicated,_ Lance grumbled.

_This means we’ll have to dance by thinking of doing the same thing, so we need to try to think more as one rather than two separate people,_ Kogane put forth.

_There’s no way this is going to work,_ Lance complained.

_If we don’t work together, then no,_ Kogane said a bit impatiently.

“Hey, you guys good to go?” a voice asked them.

Kogane and Lance both wanted to look up, so their newly shared body looked up. It then nodded since both Lance and Kogane thought about nodding.

_Hey look, we did something!_ Lance pointed out happily.

_Yeah, now try taking a step,_ Kogane instructed.

They didn’t move.

_With your right foot, not your left,_ Kogane added.

They took a step forward.

_Alright, now, try turning on your heel,_ Kogane continued.

They did so.

_Now think about saying “we’re ready”._

“We’re ready!”

“Alright! Let’s get this match started! The winning pair will get five hundred pallura each,” Allura stated. “I get to choose the songs!”

Before Lance and Kogane knew it, their bodies had split. That happened as soon as the song started and they began to dance -- only they couldn’t think about dancing together. Lance was left on his hands and knees feeling as though his soul had been sucked from his body while Kogane seemed perfectly fine.

“Foul split! Damn, sorry guys, but I don’t think Klance is meant to be formed,” Allura admitted.

“One more shot!” Kogane insisted before Lance could even stand up. Lance stayed on the ground, panting, trying to feel right in his body again.

“Have you taken a look at your partner? He looks worn in. I’m not putting him through any more unless he insists,” Allura insisted.

Kogane opened his mouth to say something, but the man standing outside the cage warned sternly, “Kogane, don’t force the kid to go any further. It’s obviously his first time. Remember your first time?”

Kogane’s face turned into a displeased pout as he shoved his hands in his pockets and looked away from the man with bleached bangs. “I need the money.”

“Then dance on your own,” the man suggested.

Lance didn’t like the sound of that. He’d come with his friends, agreeing that he’d aim to get some money so they didn’t have to pay for him whenever they went out together. On top of that, he finally got the spotlight. He wasn’t going to let this guy take the money and the spotlight. He got up slowly while deciding, “We’ll try again.”

“You really don’t have to, Lancelot,” Punk suddenly cut in.

“I’m not letting this guy do it on his own,” Lance stated, looking at Punk instead of at Kogane.

“Last chance,” Allura complied. “Do you two think you can fuse again quickly?”

Kogane groaned and stormed over to Lance, grabbing his shirt collar and pulling him into a kiss. The orange light enveloped them again, and Klance was formed.

_This time, we need to be more in sync,_ Kogane put forth.

_No problemo,_ Lance replied.

_Did you seriously just say ‘no problemo’?_ Kogane questioned.

_Yes,_ Lance replied simply, unashamed.

_… Alright._

_What? Is there a problem with me saying that?_

_It’s just… weird._

_Is not! It’s hip._

_Umm, how?_

_I will dab._

_How is that relevant?_

_It’s hip too._

_Dabbing’s from, what, a hundred years ago?_

_I_ **_will_ ** _get this body to dab._

_Please don’t._

_Then admit that there’s nothing wrong with saying ‘no problemo’._

Kogane internally groaned. _Fine. There’s nothing wrong with saying ‘no problemo’. Now can we get on with this?_

_Yeah, let’s try this again,_ Lance answered.

“Alright. Last shot,” Klance said as both Lance and Kogane agreed on saying in the moment.

“If you say so,” Allura sighed as the crowd began chanting again.

Music began, and suddenly Klance began moving swiftly. Kogane and Lance kept their minds open, allowing their thoughts to blend in the form of Klance -- creating the being Klance.

“Whoa, they’re doing it,” the man with white bangs commented as he watched Klance, intrigued.

“Nice job, Lance! And Kogane, of course,” Punk cheered.

“Punk, you’re not supposed to cheer your opponent on!” Allura scolded with a laugh.

“Whatever,” Punk shrugged it off.

Klance kept dancing fluently, portraying the upbeat and determined song currently playing through its movements. When the song stopped, Klance was somewhat out of breath; inside, Lance was dying and Kogane was fine.

_You’re still being a bit stiff. If you want full points, you need to stop being anxious,_ Kogane told Lance.

_I’m trying not to be!_ Lance really was. He was struggling with keeping his nerves under control. He was in a new body that had been formed by a stranger kissing him, and he was expected to dance in front of people against a being that was his two best friends fused together.

_Just relax. You’re doing great,_ Kogane reassured.

Lance took a few deep breaths as Klance watched Punk take their turn to dance. They glided even more swiftly across the dance floor of the cage, very obviously being comfortable in the fusion.

_Dammit, they’re going to beat us,_ Lance complained.

_I wouldn’t be so sure,_ Kogane doubted.

_Why not? They’re amazing!_ Lance argued.

_Wow, this really_ **_is_ ** _your first time, isn’t it? They’re a Stable Fusion. Stable Fusions aren’t scored like Unstable Fusions since it’s harder to keep Unstables together,_ Kogane explained.

_So basically, Unstables have it easy?_ Lance attempted to clarify.

_… Pretty much, in terms of scoring,_ Kogane concluded.

They watched Punk for the rest of the song, then cheering with the crowd at their beauty and grace. Punk’s wide but gentle smile was heart-warming as they bowed and stepped to the side.

“Alright, so, this match is a close call,” Allura suddenly informed. The crowd hushed immediately. “Punk, you earned 157 points. Klance, you earned 159 points. It may only be two points, but it still counts, so Klance is the winner of this match!”

The crowd burst in an uproar, chanting and whistling and yelling various inaudible things.

“Five hundred pallura for Kogane and Lancelot, each!” Allura continued. “Both Fusions may defuse now.”

_How do we defuse?_ Lance asked.

_… I… I don’t actually know,_ Kogane admitted.

They stood there awkwardly, still fused as Klance, for a moment as Punk defused; a green light enveloped them, the one figure wavering into two, then revealing Hunk and Pidge hugging.

“Um,” Klance stammered to get Pidge and Hunk’s attention. “How do you defuse?”

“Newbs,” Pidge commented. Klance’s head sank as his shoulders raised guiltily.

“Pidge, don’t be mean,” Hunk scolded, then going on to explain, “Focus on your separate beings doing a dance together internally, as a pair instead of as one. That should do the trick.”

_Right, like it just so perfectly did while trying to fuse,_ Kogane grumbled sarcastically.

_Let’s give it a try. Thanks but I want my own body back,_ Lance told.

Kogane grumbled but agreed. Through their thoughts, they appeared in their separate beings in never-ending darkness they were somehow walking around in.

“Ready?” Lance asked, holding out his hands.

Kogane nodded, taking Lance’s hands. “Let’s do this.”

They began stepping correspondingly; Lance stepped forward as Kogane stepped back, Lance stepped to his right as Kogane stepped to his left, and so forth. Finally, Lance twirled Kogane, and they expected to separate when Lance dipped Kogane.

Instead, Lance ended up dropping Kogane.

“Shit, sorry,” Lance apologized, biting his lower lip.

Kogane groaned and sat up, rubbing the back of his head. “Well that failed. Now what?”

Lance’s mind immediately went to the only thing that had worked before. “Seriously,” he mumbled unhappily, then holding a hand out to Kogane. “Let’s do it again. I’ve got an idea.”

“What’s your idea?” Kogane questioned.

“Just start dancing,” Lance commanded in something of a murmur, displeased by what he was about to do.

Kogane groaned but did so. They moved in sync, and this time, instead of dipping Kogane and dropping him, Lance leaned forward and pressed his lips against Kogane’s. Sure enough, that did it. They found themselves kissing, Kogane dipped in Lance’s arms, in front of the entire arena.

“Oh, well, um, alright then,” Allura stammered behind the mic.

“Kogane, I thought you were straight!” the man with white bangs called out.

Kogane tipped his head backwards as he stayed parallel to the floor in Lance’s arms, looking at the man upside down. “Not anymore.”

Lance could feel his face heating up. Kogane was hot, Lance wasn’t going to lie, and he’d just said that he wasn’t straight anymore because of Lance. That was a pretty big deal. His blush quickly turned into a smirk as he pulled Kogane upright against Lance. “What was that just now?” he asked in a tone that could be considered flirtatious -- either that, or annoying.

Kogane, sadly, found it annoying, and now that there was no issue of being one with Lance, Kogane didn’t feel the need to be nice. He narrowed his eyes at Lance. “Can you let me go? I have more important things to do than be held in the arms of a stranger in the middle of a cage in front of a large audience.”

Lance, shocked by Kogane’s sudden hostility and being out of sorts anyway since his body still felt a bit odd, loosened his grip, which allowed Kogane to wiggle his way out easily and walk away. Kogane left the cage and was absorbed by the dark crowd.

Lance was slammed into by a shorter being once again, giving him no time to complain about Kogane basically rejecting and abandoning him. “Lancelot, you did it!”

“Do you have to slam into me every time I accomplish something?!” Lance exclaimed angrily at Pidge.

“Yes.” She smiled innocently.

“Come on, let’s leave the cage so that the next match can start,” Hunk cut in, walking out.

Pidge and Lance followed Hunk. Pidge suggested, “Let’s go find seating in the bleachers.”

Lance slipped a hand into Pidge’s and Hunk’s. Pidge glared up at him and Hunk raised an eyebrow, making a weird expression. “To keep us together,” Lance explained. Honestly, he didn’t like the dark, and a bunch of roaring strangers in the dark of a place he wasn’t familiar with yet was worse that just being in the dark.

Hunk shrugged at it while Pidge kept her eyes narrowed as she looked around and grumbled under her breath. Lance searched through the darkness, differentiating each separate figure, in an attempt to find a place for the three of them to sit.

“Over there!” Hunk suddenly said, pulling Lance and Pidge along as he made his way through the crowd to an open area big enough for the three of them to share. Bleachers lined the arena, with unfilled floor between the walls and the bleachers as well as the bleachers and the cage. Almost the entirety of the floor and the bleachers were occupied by people.

Despite the new match starting and the crowd’s loudness, Lance couldn’t concentrate on the cage. All he could think about was Kogane.

“Why was the last thing he said to me an insult?” he muttered to himself, catching Pidge’s attention.

“What was that?” she genuinely asked, having not heard what Lance said over the crowd and music. Before Lance could respond and tell her it was nothing, her phone buzzed. She held up a finger to Lance and put the phone to her ear, picking up. “What’s up?”

Lance couldn’t hear what the other person said, nor did he really care. He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands as he looked at the cage, but he didn’t exactly focus on anything.

“Yep,” Pidge practically screeched, yelling over the crowd, into the phone. “What’d you think?”

Lance’s mind wandered. He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands he began to wonder how exactly points were given. He hadn’t really had everything explained to him thoroughly before coming; Pidge and Hunk just kind of dragged him along. Were points given for grace? For posture? For interpretation?

“Oh yeah, tell Allura thanks for rigging the system,” Pidge continued. There was more from the other end. Then Pidge said, “Well, you’re the one who asked for a partner set up by me. You can’t back out now.” Pidge hung up with her cheeky smirk tugging at the sides of her mouth.

“Were you talking to Keith?” Hunk questioned Pidge -- or rather, he mouthed to her.

“Yeah. He’s outside,” Pidge answered. She then turned to Lance, leaning in close and speaking loudly enough for him to just barely make out what she was saying. “Someone’s waiting for you outside. You might want to go see them.”

Lance huffed, refusing to move from his position. “Not right now.”

“Lance, you really should go outside,” Hunk continued for Pidge.

“Give it up, he’s obviously too stubborn to go right now. Keith can wait a bit.” Pidge’s phone’s screen lit up. Her fingers began flying around her phone as she texted someone back.

Lance didn’t want to move again. His muscles felt as though they were filled with fog, not meant to do anything really except just be there. Pidge and Hunk left him alone for a while, allowing him to be with his thoughts as they watched the matches.

“192 points! Jasgar wins!” Allura announced excitedly over the speakers.

Whatever match Lance had missed was obviously one he should’ve paid attention to, seeming as everyone around him was a lot more riled up than before. Though maybe that was because it wasn’t the first match so the crowd wasn’t just starting up.

A few short matches passed, Lance’s body slowly feeling normal again, before Pidge elbowed him.

“Time’s up. Get out there, Lancelot,” Pidge yelled at him.

Lance groaned and slowly sat up straight. “Who even is it?”

“You’ll find out. Now go!” Pidge ordered.

Lance groaned again and wobbly stood up, almost losing his footing and toppling forward into the people sitting in front of Pidge and Hunk. After a few arm flails and random steps, he found his balance and took a moment to stay put, then standing up straight. He carefully and slowly made his way out of the arena into the outdoor air, which seemed cold compared to the arena.

“That took you a while. You feeling okay?”

Of all voices, that one was _not_ one Lance wanted to hear.

Lance narrowed his eyes as he looked over to see Kogane, now wearing a dark red sweatshirt over his tank top and carrying a bag over one shoulder, standing by a lamppost. The lamppost was the only light around the doors to the arena besides tiny orange lights above the entrance doors, which barely emitted any light. The bright, yellow-ish light around Kogane was like a spotlight, the orange-leafed trees faded in the background and the sidewalk under him bright.

Despite the beauty of the scene in front of him, Lance kept a sour expression. “Don’t tell me _you’re_ the person Katie and Tsu -- I mean, Pidge and Hunk sent me to meet.”

“You’re the one Katie and Tsuyoshi set me up with,” Kogane defended.

Lance’s eyes widened. “You know their names?”

“Yeah. They’re usuals here, and since my brother keeps the cage functioning, I’m here a lot, so us three talk quite a bit,” Kogane explained.

Lance, not really sure how to respond, went back to glaring at Kogane. “I thought you said you had more important things to do than talk to me.”

“Than stand in the cage, in the arms of a stranger,” Kogane corrected. He grinned slightly. “This is to make us more than strangers. This is more important.”

Lance’s face reddened with embarrassment. He’d gotten defensive over nothing; in fact, he got defensive over something he would’ve been flattered over with if he’d known before this moment, so now he was flattered. “Oh. Well.” Lance cleared his throat and smirked, taking a few steps towards Kogane and holding out his hand. “Name’s Lance.”

The black-haired male took a single step forward and shook Lance’s hand with a short nod. “Keith.”

“So, what’s the dealio with Katie and Tsuyoshi setting us up?” Lance asked.

Keith’s face dropped. “You did not just say ‘dealio’.”

“I can say what I want. Shut your quiznack,” Lance huffed.

“Quiznack?” Keith questioned with a single eyebrow cocked.

“Something the manager says,” Lance explained simply.

Keith cocked both eyebrows, expecting Lance to continue explaining. They stood there awkwardly in silence for a moment, staring into each other’s eyes. In the light, Keith’s purple eyes shimmered, which fascinated Lance. But, Lance didn’t get the que that he was supposed to continue.

After that seemingly long moment, Lance raised an eyebrow at Keith. “What are you staring at me like that for?”

Keith’s face dropped again, his eyes narrowing. “I’m waiting for you to continue explaining.”

“Oh,” Lance said shortly, then going on to explain proudly with a brilliant smile, “I work at a small grocer. He has this little white dog, and although she’s the baby of us all there, she’s a yippy little thing. Coran sometimes gets upset with her enough that he shouts that and then feels bad so he gives her cuddles and treats.”

“She seems spoiled,” Keith commented, causing Lance to laugh lightly.

“She sure is,” Lance agreed.

Keith smiled at Lance’s laughter.

“Sooo, have you guys agreed on being partners or what?” Katie’s voice suddenly cut in.

Lance and Keith both jumped slightly, turning around to find Katie and Tsuyoshi poking their heads out from behind the door to the arena.

“We got sidetracked, sorry,” Keith responded, squaring his shoulders which had hunched due to being startled.

“Being partners?” Lance questioned cluelessly.

Keith looked at him. “Will you be my partner?”

“What does that require?” Lance slowly asked, raising an eyebrow with his cautious expression.

“You attend matches with me and we continue working on fusing into Klance, getting better at functioning while fused,” Keith explained.

Lance paused, processing everything, then narrowing his eyes in suspicion. “And what am I getting out of this? I’m not going to spend my precious time on just anything, you know.”

“You’ll earn money, which reminds me,” Keith unzipped his bag and rummaged through it, then taking out a little envelope and holding it out to Lance, “you forgot to take your money from Takashi at the cage door, so he asked me to give it to you since he still has to work.”

“Thank you!” Lance sang as he took the envelope and shoved it into his jacket’s pocket that zipped.

Keith continued, “So, is it a deal?”

Lance frowned and crossed his arms. “I’m still not getting the same out of this.”

“Fine, what do you want then?” Keith grumbled, glaring up at Lance.

Lance smirked. “You have to help me with my volunteer work.”

“What’s your volunteer work?” Keith continued grumbling.

“I take care of cats as a foster outside of working at the grocer, which means I usually can’t go out at night. I finally wasn’t assigned one -- only reason I’m out here tonight,” Lance answered.

Keith sighed and muttered, “I hate cats.”

Lance turned around with a shrug and a blank face as he semi-looked over his shoulder at Keith while walking forward a bit. “I guess there’s no deal then.”

Keith held his hands out, stepping forward. “No, wait!” He then groaned, “Ughhh, fine, I’ll do it. But then you have to dance with me in a designated time slot every week.”

Lance’s smirk returned and he turned on his heel and held out his hand. “Okay, then.”

Keith kept a blank but relieved expression as he nodded once and shook Lance’s hand, staring down at Lance’s hand. “It’s a deal.”

“Don’t forget to invite me to the wedding!” Katie called as she and Tsuyoshi walked past Keith and Lance.

“What?!” Keith and Lance both exclaimed unhappily and shocked, turning to watch Tsuyoshi’s and Katie’s backs.

“What wedding?!” Lance continued, obviously distraught and surprised.

“What he said,” Keith added in a more mellow, puzzled tone.

“You know, the one you two will be having in a few years,” Katie called over her shoulder.

Tsuyoshi looked over his shoulder with a bright smile. “Aw, look! They’re holding on to each other!”

Lance and Keith had been too distracted, gawking at Katie and Tsuyoshi, to remember they hadn’t unlatched their hands from the shake. They both immediately blushed and retracted their hands, Lance rubbing his neck and Keith shoving his hands in his pockets while they both averted their eyes from each other.

“Good luck with Klance,” Katie called. “Don’t forget to wear protection!”

“Katie!” Keith and Lance both yelled, horrified, only causing Katie to laugh evilly and Tsuyoshi to chuckle as they looked back at Keith and Lance over their shoulders.

Katie and Tsuyoshi looked forward and took a few steps. They disappeared in the blue light, their figures wavering, and then gone.

“I-I should probably go after them,” Lance stammered, continuing to rub his neck and refuse to look at Keith. “Tsuyoshi’s my ride home, so…”

“Y-yeah,” Keith said with a nod, continuing to stare at his feet with his fists clenched in the front pockets of his jeans.

“Catch you later,” Lance said, putting a hand up simply instead of waving as he walked forward.

“Hey, Lance?”

Lance stopped and turned on his heel slightly, looking back over his shoulder at Keith.

Once Lance’s blue eyes met Keith’s purple eyes, Keith smiled. “Let’s do this.”

Lance nodded. “Yeah.” He allowed himself to return a wide smile to Keith. “Let’s do this.” He couldn’t help but retain the wide smile as he looked forward and walked into the blue light.

“Sooo, what do you think? Is he your type?” he immediately got asked by Katie’s teasing but curious voice.

Lance grunted. “You know I don’t have a type.”

“You can’t seriously expect us to believe that,” Katie stated with that _Really?_ Expression.

“You two seemed to be hitting it off just fine. I think you two will work well together once you get the hang of things,” Tsuyoshi encouraged.

“Thanks, Hunk!” Lance cheered, putting an arm around Tsuyoshi.

“Don’t call me that when we’re not at the arena!” Tsuyoshi scolded in a whisper.

“Oh, sorry,” Lance whispered back, taking his arm off of Tsuyoshi and standing straight.

“Hurry up, guys. We all have to work in the morning.” Katie made her way through the boxes, going back the way they’d came.

“Oh, Katie! Do you know…” Tsuyoshi caught up to Katie, the two of them beginning to ramble about their coworkers. After all, they didn’t work with Lance at the grocer.

Lance walked behind them with his hands in his pockets. He looked up at the sky. The brown clouds had cleared, and the green moon seemed a paler and lighter shade than it had been when the clouds were hovering in the atmosphere. Blue, yellow, and red stars glistened against the black and purple swirling sky. It was one of Lance’s favorite sceneries. Though, now that he’d seen it, Keith standing under the lamppost in his sweatshirt and jeans with the faded orange trees and purple sky in the background was his absolute favorite.

“Lance?”

Tsuyoshi’s voice snapped Lance out of his trance.

“Hey, you okay? You’re thinking more deeply than usual,” Tsuyoshi pointed out.

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine,” Lance replied simply with a blank expression.

“Are you excited about having a partner to fuse with?” Tsuyoshi guessed, smiling at him.

Keith’s adorable smile with his shimmering purple eyes under the lamppost and his voice, telling him, _“Let’s do this,”_ found its way into Lance’s thoughts.

Lance smiled.

“Yeah.”


	2. He Kissed a Stranger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know  
> it's thursday  
> but i don't care  
> i have the update and i worked really hard on this chapter despite being sick on and off so i didn't feel like waiting until next week  
> if i missed anything while editing, i'm really sorry  
> i know it's a lot of descriptions, but it is the second chapter, sorry, so bear with me  
> i hope you all enjoy despite all the descriptions and not much happening this time around

The embarrassment of kissing a stranger -- not once, but  _ thrice  _ \-- didn’t hit Lance until he woke up after a deep sleep, while already panicking about possibly getting his ass served to him by his sister if he wasn’t downstairs in five minutes.

“Shit, shit, shit,” he muttered to himself as he scampered around his room, finding a t-shirt, jeans, pair of boxers, and a pair of socks to slip on in placement of the tank top and jeans he’d gone to sleep in -- which he hadn’t bothered changing out of after getting home last night. Despite usually having great balance and tactics in order to navigate across the clothes-ridden floor of his, he was slipping all over the place as he shoved his shirt on, switched his boxers, and looked for a matching pair of socks in the mess -- all while attempting to block the flashbacks of the black-haired hottie kissing him in front of an audience, and while he was participating in something illegal, nonetheless. While murmuring to himself about the stupid flashbacks he hoped were just a stupidly realistic dream he had and pulling his second sock on, he noticed a beige piece of fabric that had the outline of an apron. That is, a chewed apron.

“ _ My apron! _ ” Lance shrieked, picking up the beige fabric off the floor. He stormed out of his room and downstairs, not having put on pants yet, and disregarded everything around him as he shoved the chewed cloth in a certain someone’s face.

The certain someone, being a cashier in a small grocer, looked at Lance with a shocked expression, confused. His eyes were sky blue, his skin was pale, and he stood at a height of 6’2”. His curly hair was strawberry blonde, as was his mustache. He was standing at a cash register, wearing a lime green t-shirt with white khakis and a beige apron similar to Lance’s -- the only difference was his wasn’t chewed.

“ _ Your dog, _ ” Lance grumbled through gritted teeth, holding the apron up still, “chewed my apron.”

“Oh no worries, dear nephew. I’ll get Sera to make a new one in a jiffy. I’m sure she won’t mind,” the man replied with a smile. “I fixed the register for you.”

“Coran, I told you not to call me that,” Lance said with a groan, lowering the apron and slumping his shoulders. He then grumbled, “Thanks.”

“No problem, of course. Would you rather I call you brother?” Coran asked, his smile unfaltering.

“That’s worse,” Lance hissed, leaning back against the shelves of various assortments of bags, lunchboxes, and water bottles behind the cashier’s counter. All of them had a purple flower on them, with green leaves behind the flower.  _ McClain  _ was written in the flower, one letter per petal, and  _ Corner Grocer  _ was written in the middle, yellow part of the flower --  _ McClain Corner Grocer  _ all in blue.

“Lance! What have I said about walking around downstairs with no pants on?! The pedestrians outside can see you!” a woman yelled, standing in the doorway of a door beside the stairwell. She had blue eyes, strawberry blonde hair, and freckles across the tops of her cheeks. She was 5’6” and was wearing a light blue and white plaid, knee-length dress with short sleeves and pastel yellow heels, boosting her height to 5’9”. A pale pink apron covered the majority of the front of her dress. The doorway she was standing in led to a kitchen, the counters and ovens visible behind her. She was holding a large, thin box. The top was clear, so the assortment of pastries inside was visible as she was holding the box slightly tilted in her arms.

Lance groaned. “Yes, ma.” He turned on his heel and made his way back up the stairs, muttering to himself about what to do with the useless apron.

“Does that boy never learn?” his mother sighed.

“Seraphim, dear sister! Good morning!” Coran gleamed, smiling at the woman.

“Good morning, Coran!” she beamed back, allowing a smile to light up her face. She walked over to him and set the box down. “What do you think? Does this assortment look nice?”

Lance eavesdropped as he grabbed a chip off of his bedside table and searched for a good pair of jeans -- that either hadn’t been worn seven times already without being washed or that weren’t ripped.

Yes, he had pre-ripped jeans. And leather jackets. Though those stayed hung up in his closet since he treasured them.

“It looks deliciously delightful! Is this today’s special?” Coran questioned Sera.

“Yep! I worked extra hard on the miniature danishes. I hope the customers like them!” Sera sang.

“I’m sure they’ll be a huge hit, ma,” Lance called down as he rummaged through a closet at the top of the stairwell for a spare apron. “All your pastries are.”

“Aw, thank you, sweetie,” Sera called up to Lance.

Lance found an apron and tied the back strings, then proceeding to tie the top strings that went around his neck. The only bad thing about this particular apron was that it was a spare because of a dark red stain -- which was there thanks to Lance opening a bottle of cranberry juice and then having the little dog ambush him from the counter.

“We’re opening up. Can you take over for Coran so he and I can take a look at the oven? I think something’s wrong with it,” Sera told Lance. She then mumbled to herself, “Maybe the cake that exploded yesterday messed with the fans…”

“Sure, ma,” Lance replied, rolling her eyes but grinning at Sera’s stupidity. He took Coran’s spot behind the cash register as he and Sera made their way into the kitchen. The cash register was a light gray, with various blue buttons and a blue screen as well as a blue radar on top -- for scanning items.

Something buzzed in the back pocket of Lance’s jeans. He took out the black card he’d slipped into his pocket once he’d found pants earlier, putting his finger on a row of dark purple lines. A screen popped up above the card -- something like a phone screen. _Katie (0001 - 420 - 6669):_ **_Sent A Video_** read as a red message notification over the green background and under the time, which was 7:01 a.m., and the date: September 9th, 2104. Lance groaned as he opened the video, knowing it would have to do with Katie and Tsuyoshi’s project. They were both apprentices to an engineer who worked on building robots helpful to life at home in the city.

There was a square pyramid on the table, made of silver metal. It was about the size of a soccer ball. Lance could practically hear the wide smile pulling at Katie’s cheeks as the click of button was heard from behind the camera. The little pyramid lit up, blue designs lighting up on the surface. It began levitating, then began spinning. Lance rolled his eyes and closed the video.

A message popped up, as did a keyboard that had been formed from the black card unraveling into a paper-thin layout of keys for typing on. It was small enough to rest on Lance’s pointer fingers and to type on using his thumbs.

_ Katie (0001 - 420 - 6669): _ _ i know you didn't watch the whole video _

Lance clicked on the message, opening a string of messages between him and her, replied with a groan.

> _ Of course not _

> _ I’m busy with work _

_ Katie: _ _ and yet you're messaging me _

Lance groaned and rolled his eyes again, though now at the same time.

_ > I don't want to watch a video on your robot experiment a g a i n _

_ Katie: _ _ well too bad, watch it later _

> _ No _

_ Katie: _ _ watch. it. _

> _ No. _

_ Katie: _ _ WATCH IT _

> _ NO _

_ Katie: _ _ IT _

_ Katie: _ _ SHOOTS _

_ Katie: _ _ LASERS _

> _ AND? _

_ Katie: _ _ THE LASERS CAN SLICE APPLES _

> _ Ugh _

> _ I still don’t want to watch it _

_ Katie: _ _ you’re so lame _

> _ Am not _

_ Katie: _ _ i changed your contact name to mclame _

> _ I really don’t like you sometimes _

_ Katie: _ _ you know you love me _

_ Katie: _ _ you won’t admit it, but i know you’ll watch the video later. you always end up watching the videos i send you _

> _ How would you know? _

_ Katie: _ _ your phone gallery has proof since you've saved every single one _

Sure, Lance wasn't really interested in robotics or any new age tech. After all, he lived in the district of the large city that was replicated after something of the 20th century. But, that didn't mean he didn't enjoy watching Katie’s accomplishments progress. He enjoyed supporting her silently, as he always did with his close friends. It also didn’t surprise him that Katie had hacked into his phone multiple times and looked through his phone gallery. The first time she did was the reason Lance didn’t save any pictures that weren’t taken with or of friends and family on his phone anymore.

> _ Fine _

> _ I’ll watch it later _

Someone cleared their throat. Lance looked up from his something-of-a-phone, which he tapped a button on the corner of the keyboard to cause the screen to vanish and the keyboard to retract into its card form for him to shove back in his pocket, to find a man standing in front of him. He was wearing a dark gray sweatshirt with red highlights, black athletic pants, and black sneakers. A pair of red headphones laid around his neck, the cord leading down to the right pocket of his sweatshirt. He had pale yellow skin, black haired pulled back into a short and sloppy ponytail, and brown eyes visible through the lenses of rectangular glasses with a black frame.

Lance felt something odd -- a feeling of familiarity. His heart then stopped.

“It can’t be,” he muttered under his breath as he and the man continued staring at each other, the man having his eyebrow raised and Lance’s eyes wide.

The man didn’t say anything as Lance hesitantly reached out, and before he knew it, he had a hair tie in his hand and the man in front of him had a mullet. A black mullet. A black, messy mullet.

Despite Lance’s brain overloading from embarrassment with reminders of the night before, Lance couldn’t deny that Keith looked pretty damn hot with his hair back and looked adorable with glasses. He immediately shook the thought, though. He’d sworn to Katie that he didn’t have a type, that he didn’t find anyone more attractive than anyone else. He flirted whenever possible, and since he’d told Pidge that he didn’t have a type, he had to stick to his word. He couldn’t lose to Katie -- even if he usually did.

Keith’s eyes widened, realizing Lance had taken his hair tie out, and he froze as he and Lance continued staring at each other.

“K-Keith?” Lance hesitantly asked.

Keith gave him a confused look. “How do you know my name?”

Lance knew he looked different without makeup, but not  _ that _ different. Even Keith had changed something; Lance assumed what made Keith’s eyes seem purple the night before were contacts that he didn’t wear normally, seeing as he was wearing glasses over brown eyes at the moment. Lance’s face dropped, giving Keith a  _ Seriously?  _ look. “The name’s Lance,” he tried.

Keith raised his eyebrows, not saying anything.

“Uh,” Lance leaned in to quietly remind Keith without Sera or Coran possibly hearing, “your partner from last night?”

Keith’s eyes widened as thought a wave of realization had come over him. His face gained a subtle red tint and he looked away slightly. “R-right. So this is the grocer you work at with the spoiled dog.”

“Yep,” Lance said with a smile, pulling back and leaning on the counter in an attempt to hide his embarrassment from Keith by acting casual. He couldn’t help his stammering, though. “W-what brings you here?”

“I, uh, occasionally buy things for my brother from here since he lives around the block,” Keith explained, being oblivious to Lance’s embarrassment -- or just over-looking it since he was obviously embarrassed himself. “W-… What about you? Why take a job here?” he asked slowly.

Lance’s face dropped into an annoyed expression, his embarrassment washing away as the conversation rolled. “I didn’t really have a choice,” Lance answered with a groan.

Keith turned his head, the red tint having completely vanished, and raised an eyebrow. Lance, oblivious to Keith’s signal for him to elaborate, stared back with his eyes narrowed in a confused expression.

“What?”

Keith sighed, his face dropping. “You’re really that stupid, huh. How didn’t you have a choice?”

“I’m not stupid, mullet!” Lance snapped, offended. He then huffed, standing up straight and crossing his arms. “I didn’t have a choice for very good reasons, and I don't really mind working here. It's nice here. I don’t have to do much work.” He smiled in a proud and mischievous way, like a little kid would.

“My name is Keith,” Keith corrected Lance, disliking the nickname Lance had used, “and you’re avoiding my question.”

“Lance! Can you hand me the wrench?” Sera called from the kitchen.

“Sure thing, ma!” Lance called back, looking over at the kitchen for a moment then looking back at Keith, who had his eyebrow raised at him again.

“Ma?” Keith questioned.

“Yeah. She’s technically my adoptive sister who’s old, but she raised me, so I call her ma,” Lance explained as he shifted through some things under the counter, than pulling out a wrench.

“I am not old! I’m thirty-nine!” Sera yelled from the other room, causing Lance to look over at the redhead stirring a bowl of batter in the opened doorway to the kitchen.

“Old,” Lance reiterated, calling back to her.

“You’ll be on dishes duty tonight if you keep this up!” Sera warned.

“Sorry, ma,” Lance called back immediately. Lance then turned back to Keith.

Keith was holding back laughter. His gleeful, goofy face getting hit by the morning sun while in front of the pastel yellow walls and small tables of fruit and vegetables, freezers filled with meats, and shelves with various baked items was another beautiful scene Lance couldn’t help but just stare at for a moment as he had the night before.

“The reason you work here is because your sister works here?” Keith asked, still trying not to snicker.

Lance glared at him. “She’s the one who raised me, so I respect her. For the most part.” A small smirk found its way onto his face, knowing what he said would upset her.

“You should be respecting me all the time, young mister! Now give me that wrench!” Sera ordered.

Lance walked over and held out the wrench, Sera taking it and holding out a small plate consisting of three cinnamon buns to him.

Lance smiled widely as he snatched the plate and stuffed a cinnamon bun into his mouth. “Thanks,” he said happily with his mouth full. For that, he received a light smack on his head.

“No talking with your mouth full. Jeez, it still feels like you’re an unmannered teen. You’re not even doing your job,” Sera sighed. She looked past Lance, over at Keith, and called with a gentle smile, “Sorry about the wait!”

Keith shook his head with a grin. “It’s no problem. Sorry about keeping your brother from working.”

“No problemo, sweetheart,” Sera responded, her smile widening. She then nudged Lance’s side before retreating into the kitchen.

Lance took the nudge with a groan, acknowledging that Sera wanted him to actually attend to Keith, the customer. He walked back over, finishing the bun in his mouth and placing the plate down by the register as he took his place behind it. “So, what are you getting?”

Keith held up the blue shopping basket he’d been holding the entire time -- luckily, there was barely anything in it so Lance assumed it hadn’t been a pain to hold onto. The blue radar on top of the register cast out a blue light, scanning over the items of the basket down and up, then shutting off as item names and prices appeared on the screen on Lance’s side.

“You get it from your sister?” Keith questioned.

Lance raised an eyebrow.

“Phrases like,” Keith coughed while cringing, very obviously unhappy about what he was about to choke up, “‘no problemo’… and all the others.”

“Oh, yeah.” Lance glanced at the register’s screen. “That’ll be 13 pallura. How are you paying?” Lance asked with a smile.

“I have coins. Give me a second.” Keith pulled out a handful of coins from one of the front pockets on his pants, moving them around in his palm with a finger from his other hand. He placed down on the counter a lime green coin labeled  _ 10 _ , a lilac purple coin labeled  _ 2 _ , and a dark green coin labeled  _ 1 _ . The sizes of the coins corresponded to the amount of value. He pushed them towards Lance while shoving the remainder of the handful back in his pocket. “Thirteen.”

“Thank you!” Lance sang, then beginning to whistle as he opened the register and placed the coins in their correct places. Maybe it was the sun, maybe it was Keith’s presence -- who knew? But something had put Lance in a good mood. He whistled a jolly tune as he took Keith’s basket and took out the carton of strawberries and the large assortment of different danishes into a paper bag for Keith to take. He pushed the paper bag forward towards Keith and placed the blue basket in the stack to his right, on the outside of the counter. The counter made a turn near the cash register to make an L shape. On the short side, baskets and small carts were lined up for customers to take when they walked in.

Lance had a nagging feeling, something building in the back of his throat. He was hiding behind a smile now. A question lingered in the back of his head, which he tried to push away in hopes of not causing certain memories to seep into his thoughts.

When Lance straightened and looked back up at Keith, he laid eyes on pink cheeks of a turned face shuffling through their pocket. Keith put a slip of paper on the table while keeping his eyes averted from Lance’s gaze and taking the bag of his purchases off the counter to hang in front of his legs. His hands seemed to nervously grip the handles of the paper bag.

“H-here. I thought I’d write it out in advance in case I somehow ran into you before just asking Katie for yours,” Keith muttered as an explanation.

Lance looked down at the paper, his own cheeks reddening. He hadn’t been given someone’s number since high school. And this was the number of someone he’d kissed -- the first person he’d kissed since high school, too. He’d been turned down and never gotten promised texts many times since high school, but this time, Lance was the one that got kissed and was being given a number. There was an awkward moment of silence as Lance digested the fact that there was a slip of paper meant for him to take. After that moment, Lance reached out and placed two fingers on the slip, slowly sliding it over the counter towards himself.

Keith cleared his throat, causing Lance to look at him even though his face was still turned away. He took a step to the side that turned his body a bit. “S-so, uh, message me whenever and we can figure out dates.”

Lance hesitantly nodded at him before looking down at the slip of paper and reading it.

_ Keith (Kogane) _

_ 0001 - 951 - 4114 _

Keith began walking away. The sound of his footsteps snapped Lance back into reality. He quickly looked up and called out without thinking, “Keith!”

Keith stopped where he was. He turned with an eyebrow raised. There was an odd moment of silence with their eyes locked, Lance internally arguing with himself.  _ I can’t ask that… can I? _

“I, uh… You aren’t hurt, are you?” Lance asked slowly and nervously.

Keith gave him a confused look. “What makes you ask that?”

Lance laughed nervously, taking the second of laughter to scavenge for any excuse from the night before to ask that. He then remembered how he’d stupidly dropped Keith. “I, uh, I was just hoping you were okay after I dropped you like that…” He rubbed the back of his neck while smile apologetically, slightly laughing still.

A grin spread on Keith’s face. “Don’t worry about it. It didn’t hurt much afterwards.”

Lance allowed a soft, relieved sigh to leave him before smiling at Keith. “Have a nice day! Please come again!” he recited, knowing that if he let someone leave without saying that Sera would hand his ass to him. He then said more quietly, but loud enough for Keith to hear, “I’ll text you when I can catch a break again.”

  
  


Apparently, that meant the second Keith stepped outside of the shop. Keith had only been walking down the sidewalk for a few minutes when he took his chip out of the front pocket of his pants to check his messages from Katie to find not only a long line of messages from Katie but also from a new number.

_ Unknown (0001 - 750 - 8090): _ _ Hey Keith _

_ Unknown (0001 - 750 - 8090): _ _ It’s Lance _

_ Unknown (0001 - 750 - 8090): _ _ When are you typically free? _

_ Unknown (0001 - 750 - 8090): _ _ We really need to plan when we’re going to train _

_ Unknown (0001 - 750 - 8090): _ _ I’m typically free Saturdays, if that works _

_ Unknown (0001 - 750 - 8090): _ _ You didn’t give me the wrong number, did you? _

_ Unknown (0001 - 750 - 8090): _ _ You better not have, otherwise I’ll have Katie kick your ass for me _

_ Katie (0001 - 420 - 6669): _ _ did you find the grocer?? _

_ Katie (0001 - 420 - 6669): _ _ was he actually downstairs and working?? did i get the timing right?? _

_ Katie (0001 - 420 - 6669): _ _ oh and, i’ll warn you now, his family can be quite odd _

_ Katie (0001 - 420 - 6669): _ _ and if the dog is out, beware _

_ Katie (0001 - 420 - 6669): _ _ it may look cute and fluffy but it’s a fucking demon _

_ Katie (0001 - 420 - 6669): _ _ make sure to bring back pastries for tsuyoshi and me _

_ Katie (0001 - 420 - 6669): _ _ and strawberries _

_ Katie (0001 - 420 - 6669): _ _ tsuyoshi wants strawberries _

_ Katie (0001 - 420 - 6669): _ _ don’t kiss the prince and fuse with him, it’ll upset his family _

At least that meant he’d guessed correctly what to get for Katie and Tsuyoshi since he’d run errands for them every now and then, Keith thought in order to see a silver lining in the messages he’d gotten from Katie -- particularly being offset by the last one.

> _ Why do you call him the prince? _

_ Katie: _ _ you haven’t talked to him enough _

_ Katie: _ _ just wait until you become more than strangers _

_ Katie: _ _ or acquaintances _

_ Katie: _ _ and have an argument _

> _ Whatever. I got you danishes and strawberries. That sound good? _

_ Katie: _ _ yeah, perfect _

_ Katie: _ _ are you coming back on the next trolley? _

> _ Yeah, I’ll be there in about five-ten minutes. _

_ Katie: _ _ don’t let anyone on the trolley hurt the danishes _

_ Katie: _ _ i will drop kick you if they get hurt _

> _ I won’t, don’t worry. I doubt anyone will be there. _

With that, Keith switched tabs to respond to the eager Lance.

> _ Don’t worry, I didn’t give you the wrong number. I was just walking. I’m making your contact now. _

Keith quickly made a new contact for Lance by clicking on the number at the top of the message stream and hitting certain options, typing in a name, and hitting  _ Submit _ . He sighed when another message appeared, though this time it wasn’t from Katie or Lance.

_ Shiro (0001 - 273 - 4596): _ _ Are you heading over to the shop? I’m going to drop by to help out before taking Matt and was wondering if you maybe wanted to join us? _

> _ I’m already on my way. I’m delivering danishes and strawberries to Katie and Tsuyoshi. _

_ Shiro: _ _ Danishes and strawberries…? _

> _ They sent me out to go see the boy from last night, basically. While also running to get them breakfast of some sort. _

_ Shiro: _ _ Oh right, your partner from last night? Are you two planning on forming a contract? _

_ Shiro: _ _ Wait, Katie has informed me that you’re the one that requested an excuse to go see him. _

_ > … _

> _ I needed his phone number. _

_ Shiro: _ _ Are you hoping to form a contract with him? _

> _ Well… _

_ Shiro: _ _ Well?? _

> _ I’m not sure he knows what a contract is. I’m going to discuss it with him the next time we see each other since I’m assuming Katie and Tsuyoshi expect me to tell him. _

_ Shiro: _ _ Oh, alright. Good luck then. See you in a bit? _

> _ Yeah, see you in a bit. _

Just as Keith turned a corner and was about to put his chip away, another message popped up.

_Lance:_ _Man is that relieving_

_ Lance: _ _ Well I’m glad you didn’t give me the wrong number _

_ Lance: _ _ We really need to figure out how to fuse without _

_ Lance: _ _ Uh _

_ Lance: _ _ Ya know _

Keith sighed and decided not to respond for his own sake, putting his chip away and stepping up onto a platform. It’d already been embarrassing enough to walk into the store purposefully to see Lance and to have to make an excuse up on the spot before giving Lance his number, so Keith wanted a moment to himself just to relax and  _ not _ worry about anything having to do with Lance.

The platform was long with multiple benches and round roofing, as though it were a bus stop. It was one of the only stations in that area. Keith sat down and leaned his head back, looking at the teal plastic top hovering a few feet above him for a moment before closing his eyes. He simply sat in silence, enjoying the distant sound of cars passing and birds chirping as well as the light breeze that found its way through his ponytail and grazed his neck. After a few, calming seconds, the sound of something riding down tracks caught his ears and he sat up straight, opening his eyes to stare at the teal tracks in the cream pebbles on the ground laid in front of the platform. A light green, light blue, and teal trolley pulled up to the platform. The windows were large, as were the doors. The trolley itself was quite large, in fact, even though it was only one car; it could seat up to fifty people. No one got off, though; no one was there aside from Keith, not even a driver. The computerized trolleys didn’t need drivers, after all.

The glass doors opened and he stepped in. Keith sighed to himself, getting comfortable in one of the well-cushioned seats and placing the paper bag in the seat next to him. The trolley’s doors closed and the trolley began to move. He put his headphones on and took a little, black square out of his pocket, which his headphones were plugged into. The little device had two flat sides with rounded edges. He tapped one of the flat sides twice, causing a small menu screen to appear on it. He clicked on an app marked by a music note, then flipping through a long playlist of songs. He finally chose one and clicked on it, listening to some calming instrumental music with his eyes closed as the trolley smoothly moved down the track.

After about four minutes, just under thirty seconds into a new song, the trolley came to a stop. Keith opened his eyes and took in the view visible through the windows. Pedestrians flooded the wide sidewalks alongside the multi-lane roads, with at least three lanes for each direction on the road. Stores were packed, which was never a surprise in this city. Keith groaned as he stood up and grabbed the paper bag, annoyed by the fact that his moment of relaxation had to end. He stepped up to the doors and enjoyed his last few seconds of silence. Then, the doors opened, and in swarmed the pedestrians and all their noise. Keith turned up the volume on his headphones as he made his way through the crowd, finding his way down the sidewalk and around the corner at the closest intersection. After another minute, entirely of walking and cursing under his breath about the self-indulged people in this city that he wished he didn’t have to deal with every day, he found himself in front of a little shop with a single glass door, windows as tall as the walls on either side. Inside was a counter, a few tables with various mechanical tools and materials set out on the tables. Only two people were visible at the moment, neither of which were Katie or Tsuyoshi. Despite that, the music stopped and the little bell kept on the door jingled as someone walked in.

Both of the heads of the people behind the counter perked up, looking over at Keith as the door slid to a close behind him. One of them smiled at him. “Hello! How can we help you?”

Keith returned a grin while moving his headphones down to their resting spot around his neck. “Are Katie and Tsuyoshi here?”

“They’re in back,” the other person responded, setting down the saw he’d been working with and coming to the counter. He opened a part of the counter like a gate, allowing Keith to walk through with a nod.

“Thanks,” Keith responded simply before walking past them to a wooden door on the very back wall of the shop. He knocked before inviting himself in.

“-- would look fantastic! Just let me try it once!” one voice pleaded.

“I said no,” another replied sternly.

“But Matt--”

“I already said no.” The second voice stayed stubborn. “Give it up already.”

Keith watched as Katie, with her hair up in two pigtails and large goggles over her glasses while wearing overalls and a lime green t-shirt with bulky sneakers, jumped to try and take a little black box from the raised hand of a boy who looked identical to her aside from shorter hair, simply wearing jeans and a purple t-shirt, and a height of 5’5”. Katie was chasing the boy around the room while Keith stood in front of the now-closed door and Tsuyoshi stayed at a black table in the back corner, fiddling with some wires attached to a pad.

There were multiple black tables in the room. The tables and shelves weren’t made of wood, which made sense since a few blow torches sat on a high, silver metal shelf at the back of the room. The tables were made of a black, fire-resistant material that felt a bit like rubber and was shiny in the incandescent lighting of the workshop room.

“Oh, Keith,” Matt said, turning to look over his shoulder at Keith for a moment before being attacked by his younger sister once again and needing to take another few steps back. “What brings you here?”

Katie seemed to perk up like a dog would at the mention of treats, even though treats hadn’t been mentioned yet. Her head whipped around, spotting the bag dangling from Keith’s relaxed fist. She scampered over, snatched the bag, and retreated to the table Tsuyoshi was working at. She took out the carton of strawberries and placed them next to the pad of wires before moving to a different table, which was up against the side wall instead of in a corner and was closer to the door. The pyramidal robot from the many videos Keith had received from Katie sat in the middle of that table. She took out the danishes, placed the box to the side of the robot and the bag on the floor, opened the box, and examined the danishes thoroughly for a minute.

Matt, angrily glowering at Katie, came to stand next to Keith as he slipped the little box onto a shelf. “So, you were delivering treats?”

Keith nodded.

“It was an errand we had him run in exchange for last night,” Pidge replied, opening a drawer on the side of the table. Small tools rustled against the drawer as her fingers shuffled through them. “Can you give me a wrench?” she asked with her mouth full, having taken a bite of a cherry danish while shuffling through the objects in the drawer.

Matt groaned at Katie talking with her mouth full but said nothing as he complied, walking over to and rummaging through the tools on one of the higher shelves near the door. “What happened last night?”

Keith looked over at Katie while worrying about how to answer. Katie had turned in her chair so that she faced Keith and Matt and bore an odd expression on her face that gave off the impression she was holding back evil laughter.

Keith gave her an odd look in return. “What?”

Katie’s lips peeled into a malevolent smile. “Keith kissed a stranger.”

A wrench clattered on the floor, having been dropped. “You kissed a stranger?!” Matt exclaimed, staring at Keith with wide eyes.

“He kissed a stranger,” Katie chimed, turning her smile towards her brother.

“Who was it?!” Matt asked in tone consisting of curiosity and concern mixed together.

Keith groaned, averting his eyes from the two of them. “It was someone Katie set me up with, so he isn’t  _ exactly _ a stranger,” he grumbled, continuing the semi-facade Katie had started. They’d always conjure up something of a lie when Matt was around.

“He still enjoyed it. He even said he wasn’t straight,” Katie went on, taking another bite of her danish with a proud smirk of a grin.

“Spill,” Matt insisted, picking up the wrench and walking over to hand it to Katie but keeping his eyes on Keith the entire time.

Keith didn't want to admit it. He wished he could go back in time and erase what had happened. But, these were his friends, and he knew he had to make an excuse up for Katie if Katie wasn't going to be killed by her brother for what they'd actually done the night before, so with a groan, he decided on what to say. He kept his eyes averted and mumbled. “Remember how I thought I figured out my type a while back?” He then internally screamed at himself for making  _ that _ the lie this time.

“Yeah…?” Matt responded in an eager tone, seemingly needing Keith to continue.

Keith paused, glancing between Matt and staring off into space. “I, uh… I was wrong.” He wanted to bang his head against a wall, which he sincerely hoped didn’t show in his facial expression.

Matt chuckled, bearing the same smirk of a grin his sister did as they both kept their eyes glued on Keith. “You found something in that stranger Katie introduced you to?”

Keith slowly nodded.

“What’d you find?” Matt pried.

Keith groaned.

“Spill,” Matt insisted again.

Keith was okay with lying; he, Katie, and Tsuyoshi had to make up a lie any time they went to the stadium. But, now he had to actually think about what he was saying and make sure it was realistic but still vague. And the bigger issue was that what he was saying wasn't technically going to be wrong, which he knew Katie would pick up on and bother him about later. Either way, he gulped, his face progressively reddening. “H-he’s really pretty and graceful, and he’s funny. He’s also flirtatious and outgoing, also loud--”

“Katie introduced you to Lance, didn’t she?” Matt cut in. His mocking grin had turned into an expression of interest.

Keith, although on the inside he was shocked and felt like screaming, looked at him with an eyebrow raised. “How’d you know?”

“We were Lance’s neighbors way back when, and Tsuyoshi went to the same middle school we did. That’s how we know him,” Katie explained. She tilted her head up a bit. “I might have forgotten to tell you that. Sorry.”

“Thanks for the strawberries,” Tsuyoshi suddenly spoke up, having started paying attention when his name was said. He was still fiddling with the wires, but all the strawberries were gone. He had earbuds in and was staring at the wires, too occupied to pay much attention to the other three.

Matt opened his mouth to say something but he was interrupted by the door opening behind Keith, Shiro poking his head in.

“Hey, sorry I’m so late. There was a huge accident on Gerlin that had us backed up all the way down to Hinderum,” he explained, directly staring at Matt. “We need to go if we’re going to get back before sunset.”

“Alright,” Matt nodded in understandment, walking to the door and taking his goggles off. He hung them up and shot a smile to Keith while holding the door. “I hope things go well for you with Lance.” He then smiled at Katie and Tsuyoshi, who weren’t exactly paying attention to him. “See you guys later.” Matt and Shiro disappeared before Keith could say anything.

Keith turned around to Katie, who was still staring up at the ceiling. “Where are they going?”

“They’re picking up some special parts for a new installation on Rover here,” Katie said, still staring at the ceiling as she reached her hand out and tapped the side of the pyramidal robot lightly. She’d named it Rover for an unknown reason; no one tried to dig up that reason since it was impossible to win an argument with Katie.

Keith cleared his throat. “Well uh, thanks for helping me reach Lance without having to get to know him better over text.”

“Was it nice getting to talk to him in person and see how he is normally?” Katie questioned.

Keith nodded with a blank expression. “Yeah.”

“I’m glad you’re both gay for eachother.” The malevolent smile appeared again as she looked down from the ceiling.

Keith groaned at Katie’s comment, frowning and narrowing his eyes at her. “We are not. We barely know each other.”

“You said you weren’t straight. That’s the first time you’ve ever said that. And Lance is blatantly bisexual,” Katie pointed out, taking a bite of a second danish.

Keith grunted, averting his eyes once again. “I know what I said, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to hook up with him.”

“You’d be willing to,” Katie sang.

Keith turned, opening the door. “In your dreams, Katie. You should just be glad I covered for you and completely embarrassed myself with a lie in the process. Now I’m gonna go, I have some things to do.”

“Alright, fine, I’ll just keep bothering you about it over text,” Katie giggled. “See you later, lover boy.”

“Don’t call me that,” Keith grumbled before shutting the door behind him.

He walked past the two other workers, giving them a nod, and left the shop. Finding himself in a large crowd on the sidewalk once again, he put on his headphones and blasted his music to drown out the rambling voices of the others around him. He casually strolled to a different station, now an above-ground station; the exact opposite of a subway station. Shiny, silvery blue escalators led up to concrete, multi-story buildings hovering over the road like a concrete bridge would. Multiple sets of tracks rested above the roads, silvery blue as well. Silver subway trains ran along those tracks, four or six stories above the cars -- a select few of them eight stories above. As Keith ascended up the long and steep escalator, he took his chip out of the pocket of his pants to check his messages.

_ Lance: _ _ Everything okay? _

_ Lance: _ _ You haven’t responded in a while _

_ Katie: _ _ thanks for making sure to cover me once again _

_ Katie: _ _ and embarrassing yourself _

Keith grinned to himself, knowing that was also her way of apologizing, as he responded to Katie.

> _ Of course. _

He then clicked on Lance’s message stream and sighed, his grin turning into a frown as he reread the messages he was supposed to respond to. He decided it’d be best not to respond and put his chip away. He finally got to the top of the escalator, stepping onto something like a concrete patio. There was open space in front of the building in the sky, making it easy to get on and off the escalators. At the top of each escalator was a top that sometimes would shield the entirety of the escalator if it were necessary; for instance, if there was heavy rainfall. Tall, silver fences towered at the edges of the concrete sky platform. Glass doors with golden handles and rods for design allowed Keith and many other people to swarm in and out of the station. He waited in line to receive a ticket from a touch-screen menu on a machine in a line of them before using that ticket to get through a glass gate into the station tunnels. Each tunnel led to a different train.

Keith walked through a tunnel that led him to another escalator, though it was much, much, much smaller and very few people were present. Keith finally got some relaxation time like he did on the trolley. He got to the top of the escalator, walked a bit further, and then found himself walking out on a patio with a cover overhead. Nearly no one was present on the platform, which Keith was thankful for. He took a seat on a bench and waited for his train to show up.

After two minutes of sitting and doing nothing, Keith found himself checking his messages again.

_ Lance: _ _ Keith? _

_ Lance: _ _ Keith _

_ Lance: _ _ I can see you read my messages from before _

_ Lance: _ _ Keeeeith _

_ Lance: _ _ Respond _

_ Lance: _ _ I will spam you with 127 videos of dabs I got off the internet _

Keith gave a weird look to his phone as he responded.

> _ How would you even find that many? Dabbing’s a stupid move people don’t use anymore, ever. _

_ Lance: _ _ Ahem _

_ Lance: _ _ I use it _

Keith sighed.

_ Lance: _ _ And so do lots of other people apparently _

_ Lance: _ _ So it’s not stupid, it’s totally hip _

> _ Whatever. Keep telling yourself that.. Anyway, Saturdays are fine for me. And yes, we can figure out a way to fuse without… yeah. _

Thinking back to the night before had Keith’s heart racing. He’d kissed a stranger -- a complete stranger. Lance had been a complete stranger when Keith had kissed Lance. Keith swore he’d somehow been drugged or given alcohol before it all. He’d never gotten caught up in the moment to any extent close to how he had the night before. He sighed as he sank further into his seat, wishing the train would arrive already. Being in a moving vehicle while listening to his music and keeping his eyes closed always helped him unwind.

After a dreadful minute, the scene from last night haunting his thoughts, a train pulled into the station. A few people got off and others gathered at the doors, then getting on. Keith stood up and lazily walked up to the train, taking the seat next to the door once he got on. Very few people were in the car with him. He leaned into the pink seat, trying to figure out how to make himself comfortable. That was hard considering his mind was still taunting him with images from the night before, sending the tension of embarrassment through his muscles. Though frankly, the thoughts were bearable. What wasn't bearable, or something he was unable to stop from getting upset at himself for, was the fact that he wasn’t grumbling at his thoughts.

He was grinning.


	3. Just a Coincidence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAA I FINALLY GOT IT DONE  
> i'm sooooo so so sorry for the late update  
> i had no time, i got sick frequently, i got busy with family and school work, just  
> blegh  
> i also just had no motivation for a long while  
> BUT HERE IT IS  
> CHAPTER 3  
> from now on i really will aim to update every week or every other week  
> though please forgive me if i can't because life is crazy and barrels keep getting thrown at me that i didn't know were coming
> 
> on another note FINALLY stuff about fusing again in the second half of the chapter  
> the first half is just bonding stuff though i'm sorry i hope you don't mind  
> i didn't proof read i'm sorry about that too  
> i hope there are no major mistakes, and if there are, please just look over them, i'm sure what i'm trying to get across wherever that may be is still understandable  
> i hope y'all enjoy !!

There they were, dancing in the never-ending darkness. Lance’s movements were graceful, as they had been on the night he and Keith had met. Lance was smiling, seemingly enjoying himself. Keith couldn’t take his eyes off the tall, tan boy as his being moved throughout the black space around them. A grin tugged at the sides of his mouth.

Consciousness hit Keith like a brick. He groaned at the sudden light seeping through his eyelids, causing him to open his eyes slightly and blink continuously until he could open his eyes almost as widely as they were normally. He sat up, stretching his arms and back and trying to rid the images of Lance dancing in his dream from his head. He’d had that dream for four days straight, and he was _not_ okay with it. He grumbled to himself. It’d been five days since they’d messaged each other -- the last conversation they had being about whether peppers were a fruit or not, which went something along the lines of Lance asking him what he thought, Keith saying it was a fruit, Lance arguing with him over it since that’s what Katie said too, and the argument being left unresolved since Lance wouldn’t accept that peppers _are_ technically fruits. That was also the first conversation they’d held up over text, taking two minutes or less to reply to each other for somewhere around an hour and a half. But, not a single message had been sent after Keith had said he had to go.

Keith took his chip off of his bedside table and found messages from a few minutes ago.

_Katie (0001 - 420 - 6669):_ _we’re going to floren for lunch_

_Katie (0001 - 420 - 6669):_ _tsuyoshi wants to spy on shanelle again_

_Katie (0001 - 420 - 6669):_ _meet us at 12_

With a roll of his eyes, Keith replied.

> _Thanks for asking if I was free. I’ll be there._

It was 11:42 a.m. at the moment. Keith put his chip down and went to take a shower, dressing in a black t-shirt and jeans afterwards. He made his way to the kitchen and quickly scarfed down a bowl of cereal, then attempting to comb through his mess of damp hair before leaving his apartment. The hallways were straight. Supposedly, the district he lived in was resembled after buildings from the past, so they weren’t slanted or rounded. He made his way to the elevator, which took a few minutes to arrive. The delay made sense since the building had forty-seven stories, with just under five hundred rooms. Once the silver doors finally opened, Keith squeezed his way into the jam-packed machine. He had to make a few attempts, craning his neck and leaning in various different directions, to see the keypad on the front, right wall. A list of numbered buttons was laid out, lighting up orange when pressed. The main floor’s button had already been pressed, thankfully, so with a relieved sigh, Keith stood up straight and stayed put. He had a while until he got down from the thirty-second floor. The elevator let out into something of a lobby, with a line of seafoam green in-wall mailboxes, a crimson colored front desk, and two entirely glass doors. Making his way out with the mob, he stepped onto the sidewalk in front of the building.

The crowd dispersed around Keith, who stayed put for a moment while looking around. The orange sun was high in the gray-blue sky, very few peach clouds visible. The streets were filled, but still moving. The station for the trolley on the other side of the road, placed in front of a community garden with a small playground at the back that sat in between two buildings shared between multiple companies for shopping, was swarmed with all different sorts of people heading off to work. Keith decided against joining that crowd and made his way down the sidewalk, which was busy itself but was more tolerable than the trolley station. He quickly made his way down the street, heading straight at a few intersections, and found himself in front of a cafe. A dark brown sign sat above the door, reading _Floren_ in pastel yellow. The cafe had full wall windows that were shaded, making the interior scene seem like dark figures in a dimly lit room.

Keith found that the room was in fact bright when he walked in. The chimes on the door jingled as the door opened and shut, which could barely be heard under the copious voices filling the large room. There wasn’t too long of line, waiting to order at the cash register and then waiting over to the side to be called up at a different spot along the wooden counter. The cafe was purposefully old-fashioned, with wooden tables, black chairs, wooden counters, a wooden floor, and dark yellow lights that somehow cast a good amount of light. The walls were a cream color. The only thing that wasn’t old-fashioned was that the lights levitated instead of hanging from the ceiling. The buildings were no longer set up so that there was running electricity; they didn’t need to. The lights sat above the tables, which almost all twenty or thirty were already filled. Even though all the tables were filled, Keith could still spot Katie glaring at and poking Tsuyoshi as he drooled over the cashier -- who was the same young woman in charge of the doors at the arena.

“Hello, Keith,” she greeted with a smile as Keith stepped up.

Keith allowed a small grin to appear. “Hey, Shanelle.”

“Do you want your usual?” she asked before he could say anything else.

Keith nodded. He, Tsuyoshi, and Katie were regulars at Floren.

“One pomegranate smoothie and a sweet salad without goat cheese,” Shanelle mumbled, though she was loud enough for Keith to hear. She entered everything into the cash register and then looked up. “That will be 8 pallura.”

Keith dug some coins out of his pocket and offered up a lime coin, receiving a lilac one in return.

“Your number today is 994. Have a nice day!” Shanelle said with a smile as Keith walked away, giving a small grin and a wave.

Keith stepped aside, moving to a different part of the counter where a wooden sign hung above, reading _Pick Up_ in pastel yellow. It hung from thick metal wires placed on hooks, the hooks attached to the ceiling. Keith looked around, finding himself surrounded in people waiting for their orders. With a sigh, he took out his chip to find new messages. And they were new, as in they’d be sent less than a minute ago.

_Lance (0001 - 750 - 8090):_ _Do you like pomegranates?_

_Lance (0001 - 750 - 8090):_ _And pecans, apples, and tangerines in a salad?_

Keith stared at the messages weirdly.

> _Uh, yeah, why?_

“You disgust me.”

Keith jumped at the sudden comment from behind, turning around to meet those blue eyes, that brown hair, and a disgusted look pointed down at him.

“You like pomegranates,” Lance continued his thought.

Keith raised an eyebrow at him. “And?”

“They’re disgusting!” Lance exclaimed, waving his arms.

“To you,” Keith put forth.

“And they’re red!” Lance added.

Keith gave Lance a weird look. “What do you have against the color red?”

“ _Everything,_ ” Lance remarked.

Keith raised both eyebrows. “Everything?”

“Everything,” Lance reiterated.

Keith opened his mouth to object, but he was interrupted by Shanelle, who’d switched positions with another one of the employees. “Number 994!”

Keith could feel Lance glaring at his back as he walked up to the counter, taking his tray from Shanelle with a fake smile before turning around and glaring back at Lance. He made his way past Lance, their eyes following the others until Lance gave up because he couldn’t look over his shoulder that far. Keith looked forward and found the table which he, Katie, and Tsuyoshi always sat at. As he walked towards it, he could hear their conversation.

“I love this part of her job,” Tsuyoshi hummed as he watched Shanelle run around, making different drinks and putting together the trays. He had his chin lazily rested on the back of his hand, which was on top of the back of his other hand while both his elbows were on the table supporting his hands. His eyes were googly and his mouth was open in a wide, seemingly tired smile. He wore a checkered red and yellow shirt, which he left open to reveal a gray undershirt. and ignoring the half-eaten sandwich in front of her. She had her hair up in a ponytail, which landed against the back of the rim on her pink t-shirt which read _‘I’m A Unicorn’_ in a navy blue.

“Stop drooling over her, it’s gross,” Katie grumbled, checking through messages on her chip. Keith sat down abruptly, purposefully. He took a moment, glaring the both of him down. He hadn’t even taken his hands off of the small handles on his tray.

Katie grinned at him in an innocent sort of way. “What’s that look for?”

“You know what. Why is _he_ here?” Keith kept his eyes narrowed.

Katie kept her innocent grin directed towards Keith while putting her chip away. “Why is who here?”

“Why is--”

“Oh! Lance! Hey! Over here!” Katie called, looking past Keith and waving her arm.

A scowling Lance came over and sat down next to Keith, sitting down abruptly as Keith had. “Why are we both here?” he immediately growled.

Katie shrugged and smiled innocently. “It’s just a coincidence.”

“It isn’t a coincidence and we both know it,” Keith cut in.

“Just a coincidence,” Katie repeated.

“Why is _he_ here?” Lance insisted.

Tsuyoshi, finally taking himself out of his creepy admiration trance and joining the conversation, raised an eyebrow at Lance. “What’s wrong with him being here?”

“He has a mullet, he thinks peppers are fruits--”

“There’s nothing wrong with my mullet,” Keith denied under his breath.

“Peppers _are_ fruits, Lance,” Katie groaned.

“--he like pomegranates, and he gets defensive over the color red,” Lance groused.

“You attacked it first,” Keith countered.

“It’s a color! A color of _death!”_ Lance argued.

“It is not,” Keith shot back. “That’s your association with it, not mine. Colors are interpreted. And peppers are red too, don’t you know?”

Lance let out a groan, crossing his arms. “Shut your quiznack.”

“Make me,” Keith blurted without thinking.  
Lance took the opportunity Keith had given him and smirked. “I will gladly, the same way we fuse.”

Keith knit his eyebrows together and frowned tightly. “Ew, no.”

“Hey, it wasn’t bad,” Lance retaliated, getting defensive of course. “I’m a great kisser.”

“Debatable.” Keith shoved a mouthful of salad in his mouth as Lance shot daggers at him.

“If either of us is a good kisser, it’s me,” Lance continued.

“Are you sure about that?” Keith questioned with his mouth full.

“Guys, we didn’t bring you together so you could argue,” Katie groaned, finally getting the boys to break their gaze and look at her -- she’d put her head down on the table while they weren’t looking.

“So you _did_ set us up,” Keith accused.

“No I didn’t. This was totally coincidental,” Katie refused despite what she’d just admitted, lifting her head up and staring at Keith with a blank expression.

“But you just said you did,” Lance backed Keith up.

Katie turned, looking at Tsuyoshi. “Say, Tsuyoshi, when’s the next competition?”

Keith and Lance both groaned, then hissing in unison, “Stop avoiding the subject.”

Katie ignored them. “You know what I just realized, Tsuyoshi? We don’t have a nickname for you.”

Keith and Lance groaned again.

“I’m going to call you... Tsuyu, from now on,” Katie decided with a nod.

“If you’re going to give me a nickname, can it be something less weird?” Tsuyoshi spoke up. He’d been eating away at a plate of fries the entire time.

“Tsuyu isn’t weird. It’s cute,” Katie offered.  
Keith and Lance gave up, both of them starting to eat their lunches.

“Please don’t call me Tsuyu,” Tsuyoshi sighed.

Once Lance swallowed, a devilish grin snuck its way onto his face. “Hey, can you pass me the salt, Tsuyu?”

“Lance, please,” Tsuyoshi grumbled.

Keith was being entertained, so he decided to join the fun. “Oh! I just remembered, Tsuyu, do you have any tips for fusing we could use?”

“No you too, Keith,” Tsuyoshi whined.

“Tsuyu, do you want some ketchup for your fries?” Katie added.

“Tsuyu, I need the salt,” Lance chimed.

“Well, Tsuyu?” Keith asked.

Tsuyoshi inhaled deeply and gave them a deathly glare. “I swear to god, if you all don’t stop, I will smack each of you.”

“Come on, Tsuyu, you’ll grow to like it,” Katie urged with a wide smile.

“No I--” Tsuyoshi began, though he was interrupted.

“Tsuyu? Is that a new nickname?” Shanelle suddenly joined in, standing at their table.

Startled, Tsuyoshi looked up at her with wide eyes. “Shanelle? What are you doing here?” he asked nervously.

“I am on break, so I thought I would stop by,” Shanelle explained. “Tsuyu is a cute nickname,” she went on. “It suits you.”

Tsuyoshi’s face turned bright red and he averted his eyes. Keith, Lance, and Katie all smirked at each other.

“Th-thanks,” Tsuyoshi stammered without looking up.

Shanelle was about to say something more when there was a loud crash from the other side of the room. Her face dropped for a moment, though she quickly smiled again. “I’m sorry, but I think I have to go back to work. I will talk to you all soon!” With a small wave, she quickly ran off.

They all watched as Shanelle scampered off, though as soon as she was out of earshot, Katie turned to Tsuyu. “We need to get that woman to go on a vacation.”

Lance let out a long groan, sinking in his seat. “Don’t we all need a vacation?”

Katie fixed her narrow eyes on Lance’s grumpy pout. “Your job isn’t even taxing.”

“It is too!” Lance exclaimed, sitting up. He paused before turning his head to the side and guiltily adding, “On busy days... Either way, vacations are nice and I should be included!”

“Tsuyu? I wasn’t kidding when I asked for tips,” Keith suddenly changed the subject, staring across the table at the still-flustered Tsuyu.

Tsuyu shook his head of flustered thoughts, the red tint fading off of his cheeks as he looked over at Keith. “I’d say you two need to get to know each other better. Just do some more dancing and you guys should be cool.”

Both Keith and Lance narrowed their eyes and glanced sideways at each other. Keith was skeptical about getting to know Lance. Would that mean more arguments about fruits and colors?

Now Keith got what Katie meant by referring to Lance as _‘the prince’_.

“Maybe play a board game or card game, too,” Katie put in. “That’s helped other people.”

“You should be able to fuse without kissing if you practice dancing more in synch and dipping,” Tsuyu continued.

Lance and Keith cringed at the mention of kissing.

“Don’t say the ‘k’ word,” Lance said, disgusted.

Katie rolled her eyes. “Both of you seemed perfectly fine kissing at the arena.”

“We were strangers then!” Lance exclaimed, flailing his arm and nearly hitting the side of Keith’s head -- which earned him a fiery glare.

Katie raised an eyebrow with a _‘seriously’_ look. “And what are you now?”

“... More than? I don’t know if I’d consider this asshole a friend yet,” Keith answered, looking at Katie blankly.

“Hey, mullethead, I’m not an asshole!” Lance argued.

“No, sorry. You’re a prince.” Keith finally got to eating his salad.

Lance’s face scrunched up in confusion. “Why are you calling me that now, too?”

Keith, Katie, and Tsuyu all kept quiet; Keith ate, Katie hung her head back to stare at the ceiling, and Tsuyu scanned the waitresses running around in search of Shanelle. Lance’s face dropped with a groan, him then eating himself. There was an awkward moment before Katie let out an exasperated sigh. She turned in her seat, rummaging through the pocket full of papers on the front of her laptop bag.

“This went from you two bickering to an awkward silence.” Katie took out two flyers and slid them across the table to Keith and Lance. “Here. These are the flyers for the next big competition the arena’s holding in a month. Tsuyu and I thought it would be a good first big thing for Klance.”

“How have you guys already gotten used to replacing Tsuyoshi with Tsuyu so casually?” Tsuyu sighed, putting his face in his hands.

“It’s just taking the end off of your name,” Katie clarified, keeping her eyes on Keith and Lance. “You guys should get at least four hours of practice in every week.”

Keith nearly spat out the sip of his smoothie that he’d just taken, though Lance did start choking on his water.

“Four hours?!” Lance shouted with a raspy voice, so it wasn’t actually that loud. He then continued coughing.

“A week?” Keith added with a horrified face. It was already bad enough spending half an hour with the prince.

“It won’t be that bad if you two learn to tolerate each other! I believe in you dudes,” Tsuyu supported.

Keith and Lance both groaned, Keith shoving the straw of his smoothie back in his mouth and Lance sinking in his seat -- finally calming down his coughing fit.

“It can’t be that hard,” Katie added, finally eating the rest of her sandwich.

“With this guy? It’s going to be hell!” Lance swore.

Keith didn’t bother looking at Lance. He stared at his smoothie, which he pulled away from to speak. “I should be the one saying that,” he protested blankly, even though he knew what he was saying wasn’t nice.

“Oh, yeah? Well you’re not the one who has to deal with someone who likes the color of blood!” Lance let out a huff, crossing his arms and raising his chin in a defensive manner.

“Red has different shades,” Keith grumbled.

“Lance, when was the last time you had a cat?” Katie cut in.  
Lance paused, thinking. “Over two weeks,” he mumbled, looking away guiltily.

“No wonder you’re being so petty,” Katie groaned. “Get one today.”

“I would, but they haven’t had any lately that are okay with dogs.” Lance pouted, shoving a french fry in his mouth.

Katie turned to Keith. “Adopt a cat.”

Keith’s eyes widened suddenly. “ _What?_ ”

“Adopt a cat so that Lance can come over and play with one,” Katie elaborated.

“Hell no,” Keith said simply, then taking a sip of his smoothie.

An idea sparked in Lance’s head; everyone could see it since his eyes widened, his back straightened, his shoulders squared, and his face lit up with a smirk. “You did agree to help me with hosting cats. You could bring one home for me and I could stay over.”

“What, so you can raid my fridge?” Keith glanced sideways at Lance with slightly narrowed eyes, though his expression stayed mostly blank.

Lance gave him an offended look. “Where did that come from?”

Keith shrugged, putting his hands on the back of his head as he eased into the back of his chair and closed his eyes in a lackadaisical way. “You seem like the type of person to do that.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m going to!” Lance barked. “What do you take me for? A complete asshole?”

“That’s what you are, not what I take you for.” Keith allowed his mouth the pull upwards the slightest bit, happy with himself and amused by Lance’s over-dramatic reactions.

A groan gurgled in Lance’s throat. He slammed his hands down on the table and stood up, then grabbing his tray and walking off. Katie, Keith, and Tsuyu all watched him leave and sighed once he walked out of the cafe.

“He’s such a drama queen,” Katie droned.

“I’m going to bet he’s going to see Nyma,” Tsuyu put forth.

“Nyma?” Keith questioned.

“She runs the foster program,” Katie informed.

“I guess that means he and I aren’t getting together today,” Keith sighed, remembering the plan he and Lance had made.

He was very wrong. Though of course, Keith had no idea what was going to happen later that day, so he leisurely finished his lunch with Katie and Tsuyu and then went off to do some grocery shopping. The sky had already gone dark by the time Keith kicked his apartment door closed behind him while trying not to drop any bags. Lucky for him, the fridge wasn’t too far from the front door. Dropping the bags on the floor and slowly sorting through them, he filled his empty fridge and cabinets. He refused to go shopping until there was literally nothing in his apartment, which he’d gotten many lectures from Tsuyu over.

As he finished rearranging his fridge so everything fit, there was a knock on his door. Sighing, he stood up, walking over and trying to guess what crazy blue print she wanted him to get the correct parts for this time. He opened the door and was suddenly pushed past.

“Your neighbors are really annoying. The fat one bugged me about being your boyfriend while the Asian one asked about the cat. It took me forever to get them to let me knock.”

Keith, wide-eyed, slowly turned to watch as the tall male plopped down on his couch with a carrier, putting his large tote bag on the brown coffee table in front of the red couch -- both of which floated and cast a yellow light onto the gray floor that felt like memory foam, though the floor didn't sink. He hummed as he rummaged through the bag.

“Cat,” was all Keith could get out, which earned him a stare with a raised eyebrow. He cleared his throat. “You’re... How did you find my apartment?”

Lance leaned back into the cushioning of the couch. “Katie gave me the address.” He leaned his head back and stared -- or rather, glared -- at the ceiling. “She wouldn’t tell me which room it was, though, so I had to consult your neighbors,” he finished with a groan.

Keith’s eyes narrowed. He pulled the door further open. “Out. Now.”

“Hostile, jeez,” Lance scoffed. “You brought this on yourself.”

“How did I bring this on myself?” Keith growled through gritted teeth.

“You agreed to it that night.” Lance stopped staring at the ceiling and looked around, repeatedly picking up and putting down the various objects on the coffee table. That was, until he picked up a tiny rectangle. “Whoa, is this an MP3? How’d you get one of these?”

“Katie gave it to me,” Keith answered grudgingly, his grip on the doorknob tightening. “Now leave.”

Lance let out a little huff as he put the tiny rectangle back, pushing out his bottom lip and crossing his arms. “You promised me, Keith.”

Keith replied with a groan. “You can’t just barge into people’s apartments, Lance. That’s trespassing.”

“You promised me,” Lance repeated.

Keith groaned, closing the door and walking over. “Fine, you can stay overnight, but that’s it. I’m not helping you take care of the cat.”

Lance pouted skeptically in Keith’s direction, petting the fat, fluffy, brown and white Maine Coon he’d put in his lap the moment before. “What do you have against cats? Did an evil aunt of yours have a cat that hated everyone?”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “And why would I have that?”

Lance shrugged, looking down at the purring and comfortable fluffball. “That’s a more likely story than people give credit for.”

Keith rolled his eyes, going to the fridge and scavenging it for something he could heat up quickly. He glanced over at Lance while wondering if he’d eaten before coming over, then closing the fridge and looking through the cabinets. He cleared his throat before speaking up. “Are you hungry?”

“Yeah, but it’s okay. I’ll just go grab takeout in a bit,” Lance replied, still giving the majority of his attention to the cat.

Keith narrowed his eyes. “That would mean leaving the cat with me. Not happening.” Pulling out a box, he closed the cabinet and took a pot out from another cabinet. “Mac and Cheese it is.”

Keith could feel Lance’s scrunched nose and narrowed eyes pointed in his direction without looking over. He sighed to himself before he filled the pot halfway with water, started boiling it, and took out some apples to cut up. Grabbing a small bowl and slipping the slices into them, he hummed softly, as he always did when doing anything in his apartment. Of course, he was usually alone, so it was usually fine and not embarrassing. He’d forgotten for a moment that Lance was sitting on the couch, staring him down while slowly petting the Maine Coon. They were silent, and Keith was trying to clear his head of the situation -- also meaning he was forgetting they were there.

Keith continued humming while preparing a bunch of fruit to go in a salad. Of course, he had his back to the couch, so he didn’t realize Lance had used his chip to record Keith until Keith turned around. With a smirk, Lance stopped the recording and quickly began typing away. Without saying anything, Keith lunged at Lance, who simply held the chip up and away from Keith. Lance kicked his legs up while Keith groaned, knelt on the ground with his fists on the couch. Lance glanced to the side down at Keith, who returned his glance with a deadly glare.

Lance snorted. “You can’t seriously tell me that Katie’s never heard you sing.”

Keith kept his glare, staying silent. His mind was racing between whether he was going to strangle Lance or go hide himself in a closet while suppressing an embarrassed blush. He didn’t like people hearing him sing -- or hum, nonetheless.

“She’s the one who told me you had a great voice. And she wasn’t wrong.” Lance kept his eyes on the cat as he was petting it again.

Keith planted his face in the couch with another groan. He then lifted his head and placed his elbows on the couch, burying his face in his hands. “Just delete the recording.”

“Too late. Already sent it to Katie and Tsuyu.”

Keith groaned again.

“Oh, Katie says she’s heard you hum that before.”

Keith groaned once again.

“And Tsuyu says you have a nice voice that he wishes you’d use more often around him.”

Keith planted his burning face in the cushion on the couch and groaned. Again.

“We should train,” Lance suddenly changed the subject, putting his chip away. He put the cat down on the floor, allowing it to lazily walk around despite the disgusted look it was getting from Keith.

“It’s not going to destroy anything, is it?” Keith questioned, keeping his eyes on the cat that was now wandering towards the kitchen.

“ _She_ is an angel,” Lance huffed. Keith gave him a raised eyebrow. Lance crossed his arms and held his chin high. “Have trust in the cats I choose.”

Of course, when they turned their gaze to the cat again, the fat thing had somehow jumped her way up onto the kitchen counter and was now licking the watermelon. To be fair to the cat, Keith had left it out on a cutting board, making it easily accessible.

Keith narrowed his eyes at Lance. “Are you sure I should trust you with anything?” Before allowing Lance to answer, he walked up to the kitchen counter and pulled the watermelon-licking _‘angel’_ into his arms. Cradling the cat, that was actually just extremely fluffy and was easy to hold in one arm, he picked out the contaminated pieces of watermelon and threw them into the small garbage can by the fridge. The cat snuggled into his arms, obviously comfortable.

“Ooh, she likes you,” Lance sang, walking over and leaning against the counter. He eyed the fruit and boiling water, then raising an eyebrow. “Fruit salad and Mac and Cheese? How do those go together?”

“Because they do.” Keith didn't feel like arguing with the prince again.

Without asking, Lance opened the fridge and began piling different things into his arms. “Where are the spices?” He began opening and closing all the cabinets and cupboards above and below the two peach counters next to the silver fridge, even though he’d asked. Keith opened his mouth to say something but shut his mouth since Lance found the spices on the top shelf of the cupboard above the second counter and rummaged through them. Keith glared the entire time, rubbing the Maine Coon’s belly while watching Lance investigate and learn his kitchen.

Before he knew it, Keith was sitting at the small, round orange table with a bowl of Mac and Cheese, covered with spices, and his oven being used to bake tarts. He raised an eyebrow at the food while talking to Lance, who sat across from him. “You made some sort of Mexican Mac and Cheese?”

“It’s _Cuban_ ,” Lance corrected in an offended manner. “Sera taught me how to make it.”

Keith raised his eyebrow at Lance, now. “I thought Sera baked.”

“She cooks, too. Coran does it for the most part, but when he’s out, it’s up to Sera to make something. She always takes something packaged and changes it up.” Lance shoved a spoonful of his serving into his mouth.

Keith stared down at the dark orange Mac and Cheese that was supposed to be yellow. Despite his blank expression, his internals were twisting. He was a simple-food person. He warmed up store-bought meals constantly if he wasn’t eating out. Even when eating out, he didn’t see much in what he was eating, he was just doing what was necessary for him to keep living. He wasn’t into experimenting with flavors; he only kept spices around for whenever he had to cook for dinner parties his brother was forcing him to or for making nachos with Tsuyu on movie nights -- in which case, he had to make them spicy for Katie since she wouldn’t eat them otherwise.

“Is your apartment purposefully autumn-colored?” Lance questioned with his mouth somewhat full.

Keith narrowed his eyes at the ill-mannered prince but then looked around. Lance was right; the walls were a soothing light brown and the flooring was redwood, while all of his furniture spanned over leafy shades of red, orange, and yellow. He turned his eyes back to Lance with a shrug, finally stuffing his mouth with the supplied Mac and Cheese. Even if he didn’t enjoy being kicked away from making the dinner he’d started, he wasn’t going to complain about someone who knew what they were doing cooking for him. That was, assuming Lance knew what he was doing.

Lance widened his eyes expectantly as Keith chewed and swallowed, making Keith extremely uncomfortable. Keith raised both his eyebrows at Lance once he swallowed, leaving a moment of silence between them.

“Well?” Lance spoke up.

Keith looked up at the ceiling while thinking for a moment. He then looked back down at Lance, keeping his regular blank expression. “It’s just food.”

“ _Just food?!_ ” Lance practically screamed.

Keith gave Lance a funny look, confused by his outburst. Was it really that atrocious to not be a big foodie?

Of course it was.

“How can you say that?! Food is the best thing ever bestowed upon us! How can you not appreciate the different arrangements of flavors, the different styles, the different cultures, the different representations? What’s on plates or in bowls is the most important thing in life!” Lance exclaimed quite dramatically, waving his spoon around with the most serious, set face Keith had seen him use in their encounters so far. Lance’s eyes wandered all over the place as he explained, mainly following his spoon. He then put his fist, holding the spoon tightly, down on the table and stared Keith down.

Keith raised both eyebrows, not saying anything since he anticipated Lance had more to say. He wasn’t wrong about that. Lance narrowed his eyes in response, leaning forward and nearly whisper-talking.

“Food is the meaning of life.”

“I thought the meaning of life was 42,” Keith replied simply, tilting his head slightly. He sort of assumed Lance wouldn’t get the reference, and fairly enough, Lance kept his eyes narrowed and turned his head slightly with a cocked eyebrow in confusion. Keith waved his hand with a small shake of his head. “Nevermind.”

“Is that something Katie taught you?” Lance questioned, his expression unfaltering.

Keith nodded. “It’s from a book called _The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_. I have it in my bedroom. You can borrow it if you want.”

Lance gawked at Keith. “You have a hard copy of it?”

Keith nodded again. “Katie gave it to me.”

Lance huffed and crossed his arms, muttering unhappily. “Katie’s never given any hard copies of anything to me.”

Keith rolled his eyes, scooping up some more of his Mac and Cheese. He didn’t respond to Lance’s muttering, instead making it so that he couldn’t say anything. Lance, though he let out a grumble of a groan, did the same. They both finished their bowls in silence. Lance was the first one to get up, dumping his bowl and spoon in the sink and checking on the tarts. Keith didn’t bother getting up from his seat. Instead, he bent over and pet the cat sleeping by his feet. The table suddenly shook, scaring the cat into jumping up and scampering away and startling Keith into sitting up and staring at Lance. Lance had slammed his hand down on the table, casually leaning onto it with his other hand on his hip. Keith raised an eyebrow at him. Lance raised two eyebrows back.

“Can I help you?” Keith questioned rudely, upset by Lance disrupting the petting session.

“I didn’t come over here for nothing,” Lance said with a grunt, standing up straight and crossing his arms.

“No, you brought over a cat since you can’t keep it at your place,” Keith snarled, displeased by Lance’s attitude. It was as though he was dealing with a high school classmate. He was fine leaving high school behind; teenagers were too rude and moody. But how could he leave Lance? That would require a plan. He was the one who asked for Katie to set them up, though, so it’d have to be a well thought out plan.

Lance sighed and rolled his eyes as though it was the easiest thing to know what he was talking about. “I meant fusing, mullet head.”

“Don’t call me that,” Keith grumbled, allowing a sigh to slip out afterwards. “I guess we could use this time to fuse.”

“Or figure out how to without…” Lance’s face flushed, him averting his eyes. “You know… _That._ ”

Keith rubbed the back of his neck, averting his own eyes while gulping down a blush himself. “Yeah.”

“Can we move the coffee table? It’s going to get in the way.” Lance stepped away from the table and towards the couch. “And the table, too. We’ll need to move it over a bit.”

Keith nodded, getting up from his seat. He put his own dishes into the sink and moved the chairs so that he could push the levitating table closer to the kitchen counters. Lance took initiative in moving the coffee table, placing it underneath the only windows in the main room of the apartment. Lance looked over at Keith and held two thumbs up with a grin. Keith nodded and walked over, standing in front of the couch. Lance stepped forward to meet him.

“Alright, let’s try something different. Instead of dancing separately and coming at each other, I could twirl you, dip you, and then maybe we could fuse,” Lance suggested, tapping his chin as he pensively stared at the floor.

“Sounds good to me,” Keith agreed hesitantly.

Although he wasn’t happy about being the one getting twirled, Keith couldn’t deny he was the shorter one, so it was going to be easier for Lance to twirl him than for him to twirl Lance. Besides, he’d already been dipped by Lance. And he hadn’t been joking about thinking he wasn’t straight anymore. His heart had pounded, his muscles had felt weak, his skin felt hot, and everything was overwhelming. Keith could tell it wasn’t all just because it was his first dance. There was something about the Cuban that stung him like a bee -- a bee with some love poison instead of an irritant.

Shaking the thoughts from his head, Keith put his hand in Lance’s extended one and allowed Lance’s hand to whip him around, Lance’s hand bringing his and Keith’s above Keith’s head as he span across the space in front of Lance. In a split second, he was looking at the green moon making its way into the purple sky out the window upside down. One hand was still holding his while an arm was holding his waist. He, however, was not standing in darkness while being a part of a new body and arguing through thoughts.

“Well, that failed,” Lance stated.

“No kidding,” Keith responded sarcastically, straightening himself and pulling himself from Lance’s grasp.

Lance went back to tapping his chin, though he stared up at the ceiling this time. “What should we try instead?”

Keith stuck his hands in the front pockets of his skinny jeans and looked out the window while thinking.

“What about a waltz?”

Lance gave Keith a raised eyebrow with a frown and disappointedly squinted eyes. “A waltz?”

Keith shrugged. “Just putting it out there. We don’t know until we try.”

Lance rolled his eyes dramatically, moving his head with his eyes, but held out his hands. They followed the steps of a simple waltz. Lance held one of Keith’s hands. Keith’s other hand was on Lance’s shoulder while Lance’s other hand was on Keith’s hip. They went through the dance together stiffly. It was obvious neither of them liked the waltz, and nothing happened. They both pulled apart with a groan.

“Maybe it’ll work if we add music,” Keith put forth. He grabbed a small remote off of the coffee table and pressed a few buttons, a small, black radio beginning to play. It was purposefully set in the back corner of an open shelf above the kitchen counter closest to the living room part of the room -- hidden until drawn attention to.

Lance’s eyes widened as the radio began to play a soft, classical waltz. “You have a radio _too?_ ”

Keith nodded, putting the remote down then holding out his hands. “Let’s try this.”

Lance grinned, taking Keith’s hands and situating them in their correct places. “Let’s do this.”

They went through the waltz once again. It was still quite stiff, both of them focusing on every step and making sure not to go off into their own thing.

And once again, nothing happened.

“Maybe if we danced something more… _us,_ ” Lance said as soon as the music stopped. He pulled away from Keith and put his hands on his hips.

Keith nodded in agreement. “Something less uncomfortable.”

“How about a tango?” Lance offered.

Keith shook his head. “Too difficult. I can only watch people dance that.”

Lance hummed while thinking again, his chin being tapped once again as well. “What about flamenco?”

Keith narrowed his eyes. “Why would that work?”

“Or bolero?” Lance tried.

Keith grumbled. “Are you only going to think of Spanish dances?”

Lance huffed, crossing his arms and holding his chin high. “Fine. You think of something then.”

Before he could think of anything, Lance blurted, “Salsa.”

Keith looked over at him with narrowed eyes again.

“Listen,” Lance told him.

Keith raised an eyebrow. It was rare for Lance to tell anyone to listen rather than just going ahead and talking.

“Salsa dancing can be intimate but it’s also fast-paced and simple if you do a simple version of it,” Lance elaborated. “It could be along the lines of what dancing _us_ is. It might work. If we do some of it and then bring ourselves into a typical ending pose, maybe we’ll fuse. Katie and Tsuyu fuse through poses that intertwine them, so maybe we can, and it’ll be fun to get to that ending pose. I can teach you it in a snap.”

Keith raised his other eyebrow, too.

Lance groaned and held out his hands. “Just trust me and follow my lead.”

Keith looked down at Lance’s hands, taking them. Lance put his left foot back.

“Step forward with your right.”

Keith did so. Lance stepped back with his own right.

“Now your left. Then step back, left-right.”

Keith did as instructed, stepping forward and then putting his left foot back. Lance’s right foot immediately followed Keith’s left, and the same happened when Keith put his other foot back. Keith had been too focused on the footwork to notice Lance’s rapid movements of their arms, pulling his arm back when Lance stepped back and pulling his arm forward when he stepped back. It was a nice exchange. After a few more repeats of that pattern, they were able to do it quickly and Keith was able to follow all of Lance’s movements -- including whenever they were supposed to step out to the side instead and any needed arm movements.

The moment came. Lance put a knee up, bringing his hands up into the black mess on the back of Keith’s head. Keith took the cue and put one arm around Lance’s waist and held Lance’s leg. Keith kept his eyes on Lance’s chest, his face heating up because of how close he was to Lance. His heart was pounding, his breaths were quick, and his mind was racing. They hadn’t been this close since kissing. The flashbacks began resurfacing, though he brushed them away by looking up at Lance, who had a skeptical look directed behind Keith.

“That didn’t work either!” Lance whined, dramatically dropping his hands from Keith’s hair.

Keith stepped back, carefully letting go of Lance’s leg, and rubbed his neck while staring off into space. “It was an improvement. We were moving more freely.”

“We could freestyle it until we need to pull back into a pose,” Lance proposed. “We seem to be better at moving with each other. It’s like our bodies respond to each other, like… like puppets on strings!”

Keith gave Lance a weird look but shook it off, thinking over what Lance had come up with. “Music we like might help, too.”

“What was the song we fused during at the arena?” Lance inquired. “Maybe that’s the trick.”

“Good idea,” Keith said with a nod, picking up the remote again. He pressed a different combination of numbers and pressed play, the song they’d first fused during.

Lance grabbed Keith suddenly, causing Keith to drop the remote and be pulled into dancing with Lance.

“Stay touching me at all times, like in the salsa,” Lance instructed as they kept going.

Their hands were always intertwined. Sometimes their legs were. Both of them were chuckling during parts of it where they tripped over each other, but they caught each other, so it was fine. They kept going. They kept twirling together, stepping together, moving together. Then the music came to a close, and so did they. They pulled in again, Keith looking down to make sure he was holding Lance’s leg in an unharmful way. After a long moment, nothing happening, Lance groaned, though he stayed put.

“It still didn’t work,” he mumbled. “I wonder why…”

Lance’s eyes looked into Keith’s and suddenly Keith’s heart melted. That was when it hit him.

“Eyes,” he blurted in a mutter.

Lance raised an eyebrow, turning his head slightly.

“Maybe if we lock our eyes, it’ll…” Keith’s voice trailed off, lost in the sparkling blue sea of different lines. Keith was always amazed by eyes, specifically the irises. He adored how the iris was made of differently shaded lines, all leading to the pupil. But Lance’s were special, with their bright blues mixed with sudden white-blues and navy blues.

Lance paused for a moment, getting what Keith was saying, and nodded. “Yeah, maybe. From the top?”

Keith didn’t even have to nod. They pulled apart from each other, starting from the first position. They stared into each other’s eyes the entire time they were dancing, and this time, there was no tripping. They danced fluently, gracefully, and freely. They stayed touching somehow always, and they somehow kept their eyes together unless they couldn’t as it wasn’t part of the move. Another five minutes flew by, the song dying out, and they pulled into the certain pose at the very last second. They stared at each other, both grinning while breathing heavily. Lance was physically panting, an open grin pushing his pink cheeks up. Keith simply grinned back while exhaling deeply and frequently.

A mix of orange and red lights swirled around them for a moment, though they quickly dispersed and faded into thin air. Both Lance and Keith looked around frantically.

“Where’d it go?!” Lance exclaimed, distressed. “We had it! Didn’t we?!” He stared at Keith again.

Keith took a deep breath. He was confused and unhappy himself, but Lance’s lost expression broke his heart. “It’s okay,” Keith reassured. He knew what he had to do. Nothing else had worked. _It figures,_ he thought.

“How, Keith?! We’ve tried and tried and nothing’s work--” Lance couldn’t finished since a pair of lips met his.

Red and orange light blocked everything out.


	4. That Was a Blink

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know, i suck  
> it's only one week overdue though !! whoo  
> i've developed something that makes it hard to move around though, so next chapter may not update for another couple of weeks, a month even  
> i'm really sorry,,,  
> BUT IN OTHER NEWS  
> this fic will be getting a new name!!  
> so, just to tell you all now, this fic is going to be very, very long  
> approximately the length of a thick trilogy, or a typically series of five books  
> so, the overall fic will be named Fuse With Me while the first part, or book or whatever, is named More Than Strangers  
> i will change the name the next time i update, so be warned
> 
> anyway here's chapter 4 !!  
> sorry for any mistakes,,  
> finally some mentions of the dystopia and more fusing though teehee  
> enjoy !!

_ Its eyes were horrifying. They glowed purple, even in the darkness. They were all that showed up on the security cameras, while the grinding of teeth against steel seeped into the surveillance room from the microphones planted with the cameras. Although the microphones were tiny and couldn’t pick up much, they could pick up high, screeching noises such as the ones coming from the cell containing the purple eyes. The surveillance room was a pretty simple room, and only one man was occupying it. All the surveillance room consisted of was seventeen small screens, rotating between different sectors in the large, dark building, along with a control panel and three levitating chairs. The chairs cast no light -- they were a newer model, meant to avoid disturbance of light perception. That way, the person on duty could spot the different specimens’ glowing eyes more easily. _

_ Each specimen was kept in a prison-like cell. The entirety of the building was made of metal, which made it easier to hear the slightest shift of movement, purposefully. There were no windows anywhere. All of the doors were vaults, and all of the cages had full walls aside from the bars facing the walkways they ran alongside. That was why there were so many cameras; each camera showed one side of each sectioned hallway. That way, even in the dark, the specimens kept in the cells could be watched. Their eyes all glowed, so their movements were visible. Only one specimen was awake at this hour, though. That was the purple-eyed one. _

_ The man slumping in the chair simply ate his box of donuts and lazily watched the screens, waiting for something to spike. As he went to put the last donut in his mouth, something did happen. The sound of something metal clattering onto the floor of the highly secured building picked up, then leaving the man in silence. His eyes quickly scanned over all of the screens. _

_ The purple eyes were gone. _

_ The man slammed his free hand down on a certain button on the control. “Kogane, sir, we need backup.  _ **_Now._ ** _ ” _

_ A voice on the other end sighed. “Who is it this time? Did Number 93 decide she wasn’t pleased with the food again?” _

_ “No, worse,” the man shakily replied. “It’s K.” _

_ The voice on the other end hummed. “In search of blood again, is he?” _

_ “This is no time for pondering, sir! We need to get Squad Q and Squad P, otherwise he’ll escape!” the man demanded, very obviously panicking. _

_ “Calm down, Ferris. I can handle this,” the voice reassured, then being overtaken by a beep. _ _   
_ _ The man slumped back in his seat, eyes wide with heavy breathing and nervous sweating. He stuffed the last donut in his mouth while scanning over the cameras again. _

_ Little did the man know that the one referred to as ‘K’ was already three sectors down from his home sector. _

_ “Crawling again? Really, K, that’s not very sanitary.” _

_ The small, dark figure crouching in a crawling position in front of a certain dark cell simply groaned in response. Its purple eyes cast a light into the cest, shining on the green-haired girl leaning against the side of the small cell. She was obviously a teenager due to her normal, adult-like height and her sharp face surrounded by long, green waves. Her pale skin was nearly paperwhite, and sickly, which was a massive contrast to the black body suit she wore. She also had light gray gloves on. _

_ “You’re late. Not bad for human teeth, though… Well?” She let out something of a whine, opening her yellow eyes slightly. “Aren’t you going to let me out?” _

_ “Why am I getting you out? You’re the one with wolf teeth,” K grumbled. _

_ The girl let out another whine, looking at him with fully opened eyes. “I have cavities, remember? My mouth hurts too badly to bite through metal.” _

_ The small, young-child-sized figure groaned once again. “You’re unbearable.” _

_ The girl huffed in return. “That’s not very nice; now, get me out of here.” _

_ “Whatever,” K muttered, then beginning to gnaw on the cell’s bars. Quickly enough, he’d chewed through two of them. “Come on,” he instructed huskily, turning and positioning himself as though he were a cat readying themselves to pounce. “We need to go retrieve 93 and then head to the cafeteria.” _

_ The yellow-eyed girl smiled malevolently, her eyes narrowing at the sides. “Then off to the shore.” _

_ Both of them scurried out on their hands and feet, continuing their journey down the sectors. _

_ “Hey, 52, do you think I’ll be able to eat some security guards this time?” K asked through his panting as they made their way through the doors that practically breezed open with their impact, them not feeling a thing. _

_ K’s voice could barely be heard underneath the sirens, which were beginning to wake the other specimens, causing eyes to glow all over. The hallways were now dimly lit by the red lights associated with the blaring sirens and the specimens’ eyes. _

_ The girl escaping with K sighed. “When was the last time you took your pills?” _

_ “Last night,” K replied simply as they busted through another door as though it were nothing. _

_ “No wonder you desire blood,” 52 sighed. “You need to take your pills twice a day, remember?” _

_ “If we escape, I’ll never have to take them, and I’ll have all the people I want to snack on.” K, in his high-pitched voice, sounded genuinely pleased with his idea. _

_ “True enough. I’m betting if we escape, 93 and I will want some blood ourselves after twenty-four hours,” 52 responded. _

_ They came to a halt in front of a cell with an awakened specimen, her green eyes casting light all over the place as her constantly moved her head in sharp, sudden ways. She was visible thanks to K and 52’s eyes. Her purple hair was a sea of tiny curls puffed out against her head and back, like an unpopping bubble on a surface. Her tan skin shone in direct light. _

_ “Oh, yes! You’re finally here!” The green-eyed specimen locked her eyes on K and 52 and leaped forward. “Can I break out now? Can I, can I, can I?” She spoke quickly, just barely slowly enough for K and 52 to understand her. Her lisp, made by a tongue a bit too big for her mouth, didn’t help much either. _

_ “Go ahead, 93.” K grinned at her. _

_ The green-eyed specimen, 93, giggled in a crazed manner before quickly shooting her tongue out and wrapping it around one of the bars. The liquid on her tongue sizzled against the metal bar, the metal bar eroding quickly. In a snap, she eroded the bar next to the already eroded one and climbed her way out of the cage. “Let’s go!” _

_ 52 and K continued their way on four limbs, though 93 hopped about.  _

_ “The main entrance is eight doors down from this sector and past the cafeteria,” K informed as they kept at an abnormally fast speed. The sections of hallway were quite long, however, so it took them a good twenty seconds to get to the end of each. “If we can get past the guards in charge of Sector 3’s doors, we’ll be able to get out of here in three minutes at most.” _

_ “You’re nothing like Keith,” 52 muttered with a soft laugh, though her comment caused K to glare at her. _

_ “How many times have I told you not to mention him?” K growled. _

_ “But he was so bubbly and you’re so serious,” 52 justified herself. _

_ Bursting through another door with a grunt, K kept his eyes squinted at 52. “Don’t use past tense.” _

_ The three continued on their way, three pairs of glowing eyes attached to black blobs zipping through the halls. _

_ The lights suddenly came on and the three of them slid to a halt, met by a tall man in a labcoat and two security guards with large guns. The three escapees groaned, K falling back onto the floor to then sit up with his legs crossed and his hands on his ankles, 52 standing up and crossing her arms so that she could tap a finger on her elbow, and 93 staying crouched like a frog but no longer moving. _

_ “How many times are you three going to attempt to escape?” the man in the lab coat, who had quite the intimidating, low voice, scolded. Although his tone and facial expression were serious, his hands were in the front pockets of his labcoat and his shoulders were rolled back, with one foot in front of the other as well. His blue eyes were squinted, the sharp features of his yellow face clashing with the dark shade of blue. His black hair was combed back neatly, which added to his intimidating atmosphere. _

_ After a pause of silence, none of them moving or saying anything, the tall man sighed and took one hand out of its pocket to snap his fingers. “Restrain Numbers 93 and 52. I’ll take K.” _

_ K huffed as his friends got taken away, leaving him and the man in a lab coat alone. The man walked up to K, crouching down. He put his elbows on his knees, his hands out of his pockets as to stay comfortable. “Do you want to be sent to the F District?” _

_ K huffed again, glaring up at the man. _

_ “K, answer,” the man warned. _

_ “No, dad,” K grumbled. _

_ “If you keep doing this, are you going to be sent to the F District?” the man questioned in a parental tone -- the  _ **_I know you know what the answer is but you need to confess it_ ** _ tone. _

_ “Yes,” K muttered, then biting his lip angrily. _

_ The man stood up, his hands finding their place back in the pockets on his labcoat. “You remember what your purpose is, don’t you?” _

_ K averted his eyes with a sour expression, but slowly nodded in response. _

_ “If you screw up, I  _ **_will_ ** _ send you to the F District without your pills. Speaking of which…” _

_ A hand firmly held his shoulder suddenly, a needle being injected into his arm. K screamed but wasn’t able to move away before everything in the needle had already been injected, falling onto his side in an attempt to escape while beginning to ball. His arm stung in a burning sensation, which quickly spread through his body. He held his arm and curled up on the floor, staring at the one he called his dad -- who was yet again crouching in front of him. _

_ “What did you just inject?!” K screeched through his heavy breathing and tears. _

_ “Calm down. It’s just a liquefied version of your pills,” the man groaned. _

_ “It hurts like hell though!” K slightly rolled on the floor, attempting to rid himself of the itching on his skin at least. His skin itched, his blood burned, his eyes stung, his heart throbbed, and his throat was dry with a lump building and causing him to begin coughing. His eyes were watering, only causing his face more pain as the salty tears ran down his already itching and dry skin. _

_ The man smiled malevolently. “Of course it does. I upped your dose by three hundred grams.” He then stood up once more, displaying his serious expression again. “You’ve been showing little improvement and the switch will need to be done soon, so you’re going to have to suffer through having this dose every twelve hours instead.” _

_ K clenched his teeth, the pain causing his entire body to tense. He was slowly losing consciousness. With his last bit of energy, he gave a deathly glare up at the man and murmured softly. _

_ “I hate you.” _

 

Was there ever a moment Lance wanted to either kill someone or curl up in a ball and disappear from existence more? Not that he could remember.

He found himself in the never-ending darkness, face hot and lips pressed against Keith’s. His eyes were wide, of course, and he was frozen. Keith pulled away, leaving Lance standing with his arms awkwardly out. Both of their faces were bright red, and both of them left a silence lingering between the two of them before Lance began freaking out.

“What the fuck, man?! We were supposed to fuse  _ without _ kissing!” Lance practically screamed. His heart was racing, his lungs were heavy, and his mind was jumbled. Keith had kissed him again, which was much weirder than the night they met since they’d interacted so much more. The dancing was already enough for his heart, and now there was this.

On top of that, the darkness was not the same as before. There were two oval-shaped openings, displaying the view of the apartment. It was easy to guess that they were the eyes of the fusion.

Keith averted his eyes with a guilty look, rubbing his arm. “Yeah, sorry… That wasn’t going to work.”

“It was going if we’d just--”

“Lance. Drop it. We’re fused, and that’s what matters.”

Lance hadn’t seen a more serious expression on Keith before, which was honestly scary. But of course, he was Lance; he wasn’t going to let Keith’s expression stop him from questioning what was going on. Hkis own expression dropped into a frown with narrowed eyes.

“The entire point in practicing was to find a way without kissing, and you blew it,” he chastised. “Why did you blow it? We could have done it!”

Keith looked away again, death staring the space around them instead of Lance directly. “I said drop it.”

“Why, Keith?” Lance pushed.

“Drop it.”

“Why?”

“Drop. It.”

“Keith, why?”

“Just drop it.”

“Keith--”

Keith suddenly swung at Lance, though Lance ended up on his back and Keith ended up on his stomach due to everything around them shaking. The darkness turned white as it shook, though it went back to blackness once the shaking stopped. Lance and Keith both groaned, sitting up and glaring at each other.

“Would you two cut it out? Your bickering is really getting on my nerves. Also, can you guys maybe go shopping together and coordinate your clothing so that I’m in an outfit that makes sense?”

That voice was new. Both of them looked around to find the empty darkness, then locking eyes on each other again.

“You’re both idiots when it comes down to it. Look up, dummies.”

They did so to find a glowing being fabricated from star-like balls floating above them. It was wearing something like a toga, though it was difficult to extinguish. A crown of stars rested upon the glowing hair of the being. It was entirely white and light beige, except for its eyes. One eye was purple, one eye was red.

Of course, Lance was the first to say anything else.

“Is that a toga? And a star crown?”

The being narrowed its eyes with a disappointed sigh. “I’m a glowing, floating being above your heads, and  _ that’s _ the first thing you ask? My, what a let down.”

Lance held his hands up defensively. “I have to ask the important things first.”

Keith was squinting up at the being, hunched over with his hands in his front pockets. “Can you dim your glow? Is that possible?”

The being let out an offended scoff, snapping its fingers. It lowered to Lance’s and Keith’s level in the darkness, its glow dimming -- or rather, chipping away -- as it lowered to reveal light tan skin and short black hair. Its outfit had changed as well, a different one revealed from underneath the toga. It wore a half red, half blue sweatshirt and sky blue jeans, along with a black shirt underneath the open sweatshirt and a black glove on its left hand. It shoved its hands in the pockets of its sweatshirt, standing with one leg right in front of the other so that its heel was touching the arch of the other foot. Its feet were covered by black sneakers, unsurprisingly. It tilted its head slightly with its chin held high in a condescending manner.

“Is that better, Mr. Emo?” the thing huffed.

“Mr. Emo?” Keith questioned threateningly, narrowing his eyes.

Lance wasn’t exactly happy with the sassy thing, either. “Who are you even?”

The being smiled suddenly, brightening up. It bent forward slightly, putting the gloved hand in the middle of its chest. “I am the contract master.” It then straightened, raising its hand up above its head and putting the other hand on its hip. “You may refer to me as Klance. I’m the embodiment of your fusion’s mind, so it would be easiest to name me after the given fusion name.”

Lance’s face scrunched while Keith kept his eyes narrowed.

“You’re wearing normal clothes, and yet,” Lance commented in a disgusted tone, “you’re so… flamboyant? I think that’s the word I’m looking for to describe you.”

The being’s face dropped, its hand being brought down to its chest again. This time, though, he stared at his nails, picking at them with the same hand’s thumb. They were long nails, manicured nails, Lance noticed. “Of course I’m flamboyant. I’m a mix of you two gays.”

“I’m not gay,” Keith grumbled in a mumble, narrowing his eyes at Klance.

Lance put a hand of his own on his hip and pointed accusingly at Klance. “There’s no way mullet’s personality and my personality mix to create  _ you _ .”

“Sorry to burst your bubble, Mr. Prince, but I am in fact a mixture of your personalities.” It gestured its gloved hand to Lance, leaving its other hand on its hip. “Take your flirtatious behaviors and your ambitiousness,” it moved its hand to gesture to Keith, “and add them to his sass and intelligence.” It pointed its thumb into its chest with a smirk of a smile. “You get me.”

Keith let out a groan. “So we have to deal with you for the rest of our lives?”

“Whenever you two fuse, yes,” Klance confirmed.

Keith raised an eyebrow, opening his mouth to say something but being cut off.

“Your brother didn’t tell you enough, that’s right, though most fusees don’t talk about it so it’s quite alright. Your friends are all stable, as well, so that means it’s different for them. A contract for unstable fusions goes as so: you fuse with someone, creating an ulterior being. That being is me, the contract master. The contract master analyzes the mind of the two fused and their personal minds while fused for the first time The contract master then decides what the contract entails, or if there should be one at all, and reveals itself the second time. If the fusion is not stable enough and the fusion is harmed by existing, the contract master has every right to decline a contract, and thus the two will be banned from fusing,” Klance went on to explain. It grinned mischievously, tapping its fingers together. “If the two attempt to fuse ever again, their bodies will reject it and, depending on how harsh their master was, they might get hurt, so be careful.” It sang that last part, causing Lance’s stomach to turn.

Lance glanced over at Keith, who was wide-eyed and paler than usual. He was obviously just as offset by this as Lance was.

Klance rolled its eyes and its grin lowered into a normal, bored expression, also placing its arms crossed behind its back. “Don’t worry, I approve of your contract.” It then looked at both of them with a deadly glare. “Just don’t get on my nerves with all your petty arguing.”

“Blame it on him,” Lance immediately insisted, pointing over at Keith. “I never start anything; it’s all him.” He then crossed his arms with a huff.

Keith rolled his eyes in response.

“You don’t really think that.”

Lance’s heart stopped, his eyes widened, and his gut went empty.

“You’re actually quite an insecure person, Mr. Prince, though it drives you to act outrageously to cover up the fact that you’re afraid you’re not as interesting as you’d like to be. You’re quite aware you overly react to many things.”

Klance’s differently colored eyes were locked on Lance, and although it only caused his heart to sink further and further into his chest, he couldn’t look away.

“You also have many childish fears, like the dark, being completely alone--”

“Okay, change of subject!” Lance laughed nervously, averting his eyes finally as his heart began to race and his cheeks reddened. He was embarrassed; he didn’t need Keith knowing his insecurities or fears. “So, what’s your idea for our contract?”

The being’s face lit up from a dark, serious expression to a determined, blank one. “Lovers.”

“What?!” Lance screamed and Keith choked.

Klance burst out laughing, his composed expression gone as he held his stomach. “Take a chill pill, I was kidding. I know Katie’s been bothering you two about hooking up.”

Lance and Keith both groaned while the being got ahold of itself.

“Anyway,” it breathed, “this contract will entail that you two work together to get this body to move on its own. I can’t move it until you two have used it enough that it has become strong, in which case it won’t be likely for it to split accidentally. Then, you two basically won’t have to do any work because it’ll be able to work as its own being -- in other words, I’ll be able to control the body because there will be enough strength stored and I will be able to be my own person apart from you two instead of just an embodiment of this fusion’s mind.”

“You talk too much,” Lance hissed. “I can’t take in all that you’re saying and--”

“How do we establish a contract?” Keith interrupted with an icy stare directed at Klance.

“Oh! That’s ever so simple.” The being held out its hand, golden, glowing specks traveling to his hand and forming a floating triangular pyramid. It thankfully wasn’t as bright as Klance had been before Keith had asked them to stop glowing. Klance had a hand on one side of the triangle. “Place your hands on the sides and answer with ‘I do’ to the questions by protocol I have to ask and you will be all set.”

Lance complied with a groan, stepping forward and placing his hand on the side of the pyramid closest to him. Keith stayed back though, his icy stare unfaltering.

“How do we know we can trust you?”

“Are you serious?” The being glowered at Keith. “You’re going to be cautious of me after everything  _ you’ve _ done? We should be cautious of--”

Keith slammed his hand against the free side of the pyramid, Klance immediately falling silent. Klance cleared his throat, leaving Lance confused and concerned, though he brushed it aside.

“All that aside, do you two accept each other as fusing partners?”

“This feels like wedding vows,” Lance murmured unhappily, but spoke up, “I do.”

“I do,” Keith replied as well, still glowering at Klance.   
“Do you agree to help each other’s mental and physical wellbeing?”

Lance glanced over at Keith to find a softened expression on his face, him having glanced over at Lance as well. “We do,” they said in unison, then grinning. Lance’s heart had gone back to racing and his cheeks had gone back to burning, though this time for completely different reasons. Keith had just agreed to help him stay healthy and happy, how could he not get excited and get butterflies in his stomach? On top of that, Keith was grinning at him with his purple eyes. It was adorable and beautiful at the same time.

The pyramid suddenly fell apart instantaneously, Klance flipping its hair. “Now I’ll be off. You two have fun dancing! Please  _ try _ not to split.” There was a lot of sass in his tone for the last comment he said.

Lance watched as the being began glowing again, glowing particles collecting around him and distorting him image until finally, the particles burst and faded into the darkness, no being in sight.

Lance turned his gaze to Keith, who was still staring at where the being had disappeared. “I liked him better when he was serious,” he blurted.

“I can still hear you!” Klance’s voice echoed around them in an offended huff.

Lance let out an exasperated sigh.

“We just have to get used to it being around,” Keith put forth, lowering his gaze and moving it over to Lance.

“Well, fusing is out of the way at least,” Lance commented, rubbing the back of his neck while putting his other hand on his hip. He averted his gaze, admiring the darkness speckled with faint golden and white lights around them. He then looked out the eyes of the fusion.

“Let’s start off easy,” Keith suggested.

“How about a wink?” Lance offered with a grin, glancing over at Keith.

Keith was silent for a moment before saying, “Alright.”

Lance thought about how to wink -- the action of only closing one eye, and what it felt like to have one eye open and one closed. The eyes in front of them shut downwards suddenly, leaving them in complete darkness. They then opened again.

Lance’s face dropped. “Keith, that was a blink.”

“... Oh.” Keith looked dumbfounded, from what Lance could tell. Keith’s blank tone supported that assumption.

“Let’s try again,” Lance sighed.

He focused the same way as before, and yet, the eyes closed and opened just the same as before.

Lance’s shoulders slumped. “Nope, we blinked again,” he groaned.

“No, I’m sure we winked,” Keith muttered, staring out the eyes.

“Nope, no, we blinked,” Lance corrected.

“I’m pretty sure we winked,” Keith muttered more softly.

“We  _ blinked _ ,” Lance repeated.

“No, we didn’t.” Keith’s voice was again softer. It was as though he were in denial, Lance though. He bit his bottom lip.

Lance stared at Keith with his eyes narrowed for a moment without speaking. He then slowly spoke up. “You don’t know how to wink, do you?”

“Of course I do,” Keith answered dryly, then clearing his throat. He still wouldn’t look at Lance.

Anger was burning in Lance’s veins. He couldn’t help it. He was stuck with an annoying mulleted-man whom his friends set him up with, who had kissed him multiple times now, and who wouldn’t admit he didn’t know how to wink. He grumbled before saying anything. “Fucking do it, then. We’re wasting time here. I have shows to watch before sleeping, ya know.”

Keith finally looked over at Lance with his own eyes narrowed. “Right, your shows.”

“I’m a busy man, Kogane. Don’t doubt the fanboy in me,” Lance sassed, putting a hand on his hip and letting out a huff while still glaring at Keith.

“Lance, people haven’t used the word ‘fanboy’ in over a hundred years,” Keith groaned, crossing one arm over his chest in order to support his other elbow. He put his head in the hand being supported.

Lance huffed again, crossing his arms. “How do you know it, then?”

Keith’s head perked up. He averted his eyes, his arms dropping. He rubbed his arm while guiltily explaining, “I like to read.”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, so?”

“It’s not my fault romcoms from the 21st century are funny.”

Lance had to bite his lip to hold back laughter. While choking down a loud laugh, he sarcastically stated, “Nice excuse.”

Keith groaned again, still rubbing his arm.

“Let’s get something done already,” Lance sighed once he was bored again. “Should we just go straight into dancing?”

Keith shrugged, finally looking at Lance again. “I guess.”

“Should we freestyle it, or do a one-man salsa?’ Lance asked, putting his hands on his hips and looking out the eyes of the fusion again.

“Salsa,” Keith immediately decided. “It should be easier since we both know the steps.”

“You got the feet, I got the arms,” Lance recommended.

“Wait, can we do that? Are we able to split the movements?” Keith questioned with wide eyes.

Lance shrugged, smiling childishly. “It’s worth a shot.”

“Let’s do this,” Keith agreed with a nod.

Keith stared out the eyes and shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. Although he wasn’t moving, the fusion began to move -- one step forward, one step back, one step to the side. Its hips moved as well, just as Lance had taught Keith. Lance couldn’t help but smile at that. He felt the flow of the feet, which was easy since as the fusion moved, the space around them did. He picked up Keith’s rhythm quickly and got the arms to move along in a way matching the dance. They couldn’t see any of what the body was doing, only the changing view through the eyes of the fusion as it moved. Lance could also feel a warm sensation in certain muscles as those exact muscles worked the fusion’s movements.

“This is so much easier than last time,” Lance laughed, glancing over at Keith.

Keith was grinning, and he glanced over when Lance spoke up. A smile replaced the small grin. “Yeah.”

Suddenly, music came on. It was a love song. Both Lance and Keith’s faces dropped.

“What’re the glum faces for? I thought I’d help set the mood with some music,” Klance’s voice echoed throughout the dark space.

Keith nearly choked on air in disgust while Lance exclaimed angrily, staring up at nothing, “We  _ are not _ in love!”

“Sure, whatever you want to believe. Just keep working; you two are doing great!”

Both Keith and Lance groaned, glancing at each other and bursting out laughing.   
“Maybe we should try freestyling now,” Keith put forth.

Lance smiled gently. “Sounds good to me.”

Keith began with the feet, the static feeling of the movements coursing through Lance’s feet. He started focusing on the arm movements, and soon enough, the fusion was dancing well to the music. Lance looked over at Keith, who had both of his eyes closed. His expression was blank. He suddenly opened one eye, looking to the side at Lance. His mouth pulled up into a small grin and he opened both eyes, then looking straight ahead at the view.

Lance’s smile widened as they continued moving, both switching between smiling at each other and watching the view. Lance was enjoying himself. How could he not? He was succeeding at getting an unstable fusion to function, with a hot, irritating, lovable partner nonetheless.

_ Nope, no way. There’s no way I think that _ , Lance assured himself in something of a scolding.

A good hour or two passed; Lance wasn’t keeping track of how many songs had played already. Him and Keith were still enjoying themselves, and surprisingly, Lance wasn’t out of breath. Yet. Of course, the wonderful dancing session had to come to an end.

Suddenly, a flash of brown and white flashed by in the view. Lance halted, squinting his eyes for a moment.

_ The cat. _

He had the fusion turn its head to find the cat running around frantically, chasing something black -- something thin, circular, and black that slid across the floor easily.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Lance breathed.

Keith stopped moving as well, turning his gaze to Lance. “What’s wrong?”

“We need to split.  _ Now, _ ” Lance said breathily.   
“That should be easier. Pull into each other, the same sexy position you used to fuse and then pull apart,” Klance’s voice cut in.

“You just  _ had _ to explain the pose that way,” Lance growled, scowling up at the darkness. He approached Keith, draping his leg around Keith’s waist and putting his arms around Keith’s neck. Keith complied quickly without questioning, holding Lance’s leg and placing a hand on Lance’s back.

“Close your eyes, darlings,” Klance instructed before they began pulling apart. “Then open your eyes while pulling apart.”

Both Keith and Lance groaned, though they did as they were told. They both closed their eyes.

“On a count of three,” Lance ordered.

“One,” Keith began counting. “Two… Three.”

Both sets of eyes shot open, meeting for a split second before their heads turned, their bodies pushing away from each other. The area around them changed to white, then swiftly fading to have them standing in the living room separately once again. Something stung Lance’s chest. His breathing was suddenly heavy and he started coughing, though he quickly collected himself and straightened. He looked around for the cat.

“You okay?” Keith questioned with worried eyes and a tiny frown. If that wasn’t adorable, Lance didn’t know what was.

Lance nodded, hiding the blush rising on his face by suppressing it and focusing on looking and listening for the cat. “She isn’t allowed to play with hair ties. She’ll eat them.”

“… The cat eats hair ties?” Keith’s worried expression shifted to a skeptical one.

“Stupidly, yes, she does.” Lance heard the sound of skidding from a hallway to their left. Lance decided to grab Keith’s hand, feeling it would be wrong to investigate or go further into Keith’s apartment without permission, and marched down the hallway to find the Maine Coon on her side, curled while kicking the hair tie caught between her paws.

“You’re such a roughian for an angel,” Lance muttered at the cat jokingly, dropping Keith’s hand and carefully taking the hair tie from her. He picked up what was now the cat squirming on the floor, getting her to cuddle up in his arms before narrowing his eyes and analyzing the floor and surroundings. There were hair ties in the bathroom on the counter, which Lance could see since the door was open. There were a few hair ties in the hallway, and he’d known he’d seen some scattered in the living room as well. Lance pushed the hair tie down onto his wrist and handed the cat over to Keith, who stared, dumbfounded.

“Hold her while I collect all these hair ties,” Lance grumbled, getting on his hands and knees and crawling around the pick up the differently sized, colored, and styled hair ties lying around.

He glanced over his shoulder at Keith to find him staring at the Maine Coon sitting one of his arms, the other around the cat. Keith blinked involuntarily. The cat blinked voluntarily. A wave of fear washed over Keith’s face and he turned his head to look at Lance.

“Wait, Lance! What do I do with it?” Keith squeaked.

Lance snorted. “Just keep blinking at her.” He looked back down, continuing to add to his new collection of hair ties on his wrist. “She’ll start purring soon enough.”

Lance heard Keith gulp but he went silent after that, so Lance assumed things were fine. He went into the bathroom and took the hair ties about to fall off the counter for safety measures. He then poked his head out the door to find Keith and the cat gone. Lance raised an eyebrow, calling out, “Keith?”

“Yeah?” Keith called back from the living room area.

Lance paused, thinking of a question to ask so that it didn’t seem like he’d just gotten anxious Keith had run off with a cat. Lance knew he would, so he had to check that other people didn’t -- but he didn’t want to seem untrusting, or like an idiot. “Can I go into your room to collect hair ties?”

“Uh… Sure. There’s a sleeping bag on the floor in the closet. Can you bring that out? I’ll sleep out here with you.”

Lance grinned, his heart warming up. Keith had said he’d sleep in the living room with him; that meant he was warming up to Lance, right? Lance bounded happily into Keith’s dark bedroom, turning out the light. The room wasn’t very interesting, which was a bit disappointing to Lance, but he decided not to pay much attention to his inner fashionista. There was only one closed door in the room, which made it obvious what was the closet. Lance opened the closet and crouched down, ignoring all the identical shirts and pairs of jeans hanging from hangers. There was a black sleeping bag neatly folded on the floor, which Lance took out. He closed the closet again and turned his head to his sides, a mischievous grin tugging at the sides of his mouths. He turned around, picking up more hair ties off the floor, along with a bunch of different papers and black t-shirts. He approached the dresser next to Keith’s small bed, looking at what sat on it. There was a wooden-framed picture of the man at the cage -- Shiro, was it? -- and Keith, though they looked a lot younger. Keith was in a hospital bed, a wide, genuine smile spread on his childish face. Shiro had all black hair, without buzz cuts on the sides. He had an arm around Keith, though both of them had their outer arms’ hands forming a heart in front of them for the camera. It was quite a cute sibling picture, Lance thought. In front of the picture sat a green pill bottle. Lance stared at it with his eyebrows knitted. Pill bottles were typically yellow or blue, not green. The bottle’s label was turned away from him, though as he tried to turn the bottle he noticed there was another picture underneath the pill bottle. The picture was covered in dust, so Lance was cautious about pulling it out. He squinted at it.

There was Keith. A teenage Keith. Not any different from today’s, twenty-something Keith -- did Lance even know Keith’s exact age? -- with his hair tied back and wearing a leather jacket over a white t-shirt. A taller, buffer man had an arm around Keith in a way Lance could tell was  _ not _ just a friendly way. The man had a beautiful smile, along with hazel eyes, light brown hair that was a mess on his head, and pale, freckled cheeks. Keith was grinning in a way Lance hadn’t seen.

Did Keith have a boyfriend?

“Put. That. Down.”

Keith definitely did not sound happy with Lance.

The low tone of Keith’s startled Lance, causing him to go into a defensive position; one leg was up in the air, bent at the knee, while both his arms were wild but covering his face. He paused for a moment, his eyes meeting the deathly stare he was getting from Keith. He slowly unraveled himself, gently placing the picture back down.

“Sorry, uh…” Lance was at a loss for words, too many questions swirling in his head. Was Keith dating someone? Was Keith crushing on, pining for that buff dude? Was Keith really a leather-jacket kind of guy?

Keith had his arms at his sides, his hands balled into fists. He huffed and stormed off. There was a pang in Lance’s heart, guilt creeping through his veins. He ran out of the room, after Keith.

“Keith, I’m sorry! You’re such a mysterious guy; I couldn’t help going through your stuff!” Lance was blurting everything that came to mind. Even though that wasn’t the best idea in the moment, none of what he was saying was lies.

Keith kept his back turned to Lance, even when he sat down on the floor with his arms crossed.

“Come on, man! I want to get to know you better! We have a contract! We’re supposed to get to know each other!” Lance continued exclaiming, putting his hands on his hips and unhappily glaring at Keith’s back. He noticed from the corner of his eye that the cat was sleeping on the couch.

Keith let out a grumble. “If you want to get to know me,  _ ask. _ Don’t go through my stuff.”

Lance sighed. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.” He wanted to strangle himself; he hated apologies, but he was willing to apologize for going through Keith’s stuff. He’d already put enough on the guy in one day.

Keith also sighed, slowly standing up. He walked past Lance without meeting eyes. “I’m going to take a shower.”

With that, Keith turned into the hallway and was out of sight. Lance let out a groan and flopped down onto the couch, somehow not startling the cat. He took out his chip and pulled up a show to watch, unsure what else to do for the time being. Keith took lengthy showers, apparently. Lance got through an entire twenty-three minute episode before Keith turned the water off. It took him another twenty minutes to finally return to the living room.

“Here, I thought you might want these.”

Lance’s jaw dropped.   
There Keith stood, simply standing shirtless in red pajama pants. He had the sleeping bag under one arm and was holding out a set of black pajama pants along with a gray shirt. Keith raised an eyebrow at Lance.

“You have colored clothing,” Lance gawked.

Keith raised both eyebrows and threw the clothes into Lance’s lap.

“I’ve only seen you in black pants. No way I would’ve thought you had red, fuzzy pajamas,” Lance defended.

Keith rolled his eyes, setting the sleeping bag on the floor. “Oh, and, you might want to lift the shirt off of the pants. I brought something for you.”

Lance’s face contorted into an odd expression, hesitantly lifting the gray shirt up. A crescent moon night light lay on top of fuzzy black pajama pants. Lance blinked at it with wide eyes.

Keith cleared his throat and mumbled, “Klance said something about you being afraid of the dark, so…”

Lance looked down at Keith, who was grinning up at him. It was a wide grin, one full of care and joy. It pushed his cheeks up while his eyes were bright.

It was close to the grin Keith had in the picture. Close was the keyword in that sentence.

A light laugh escaped Lance, admiring the night light. “Why do you even have this?”

“I uh… I used to be afraid of the dark, too, and when I moved into my apartment, Shiro gave me a night light.” Keith kept his eyes averted from Lance while talking with an embarrassed expression, then looking back and flashing that grin again.

There was a moment of silence between the two, Lance memorizing all the little details of the simplistic night light. There were three stars lining the bottom side of the crescent, which were shaded light blue while the moon was shaded a pastel yellow.

“What are you afraid of in the dark? I’m afraid of the boogeyman, of course,” Lance tried to make conversation.

“Oh, uh, my eyes, um…” Keith muttered something Lance couldn’t hear, his voice trailing off.

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Your eyes?”

“My eyes don’t pick things up in the dark easily,” Keith explained.

“That makes sense,” Lance approved with a nod. He peered around, his mind drifting. “So, uh… Should I go change in the bathroom?”

Keith nodded. Lance got up and did so, returning with his clothes in a heap in his arms. Keith’s clothes fit surprisingly well; in fact, the shirt was baggy on him.

“That’s Shiro’s shirt, by the way,” Keith suddenly spoke up. He had his legs tucked into the sleeping bag and had put his hair up in the time that Lance had been away. He was scrolling through things on his chip, assumably messages.

A shiver ran down Lance’s spine. He wasn’t comfortable wearing a shirt belonging to someone he’d met not even once, really. Though, would wearing Keith’s shirt be any better? Even though the uncomfortableness would be because of different reasons, probably not.

Lance sat down on the couch once again. He noticed that a beige blanket had been placed next to the cat, as well. Lance grinned to himself, grateful for Keith’s thoughtful actions -- despite him going through Keith’s stuff. He placed his heap of clothes on the floor, hiding all of the hair ties in the heap so that the cat wouldn’t be able to get to them. He situated himself, laying on the couch with the blanket over him, which was possible since the cat was sleeping on the arm of the couch instead of the cushion.

“What’s her name?” Keith suddenly asked. He’d put his chip away and was now looking up at Lance from the floor blankly.

“She doesn’t have one. I call her an angel,” Lance replied.

Keith paused before asking, “Do you take care of her a lot?”

Lance nodded lightly. “She’s been at the foster home for a year or so now… We haven’t found a suitable owner for her because she can’t be with dogs or other cats, eats hair ties, and can be quite destructive. I love her anyway, though.” Lance sighed and nuzzled deeper into the nice, fluffy blanket he’d wrapped himself in. “I wish I could take her in.”

All Keith did in response was nod. He snapped and the lights went out, though the night light was plugged in and turned on underneath the window -- which Keith’s head was near when he laid down.

A lump built in Lance’s throat, the questions from when he was in Keith’s room resurfacing.

Keith groaned. “What do you want to know?”

That caught Lance off guard. “H-huh?”

“I can see it in your face. You want to know something. What do you want to know? Why I was in the hospital when I was young? What the pills are for? Why the bottle’s green?”

Lance gulped down the lump in his throat. “A-actually,” he murmured, just loudly and clearly enough for Keith to hear, “do you have a boyfriend?”

Keith’s breath hitched. “Not anymore,” he whispered.

Lance’s heart broke because of the broken heart behind that whisper. His heart sank in his chest, feeling guilty for asking.

“Wow, I’m tired after all that dancing,” Keith yawned.

Lance chuckled, his chest relaxing. “We did dance a lot, huh?”

Keith let out a small laugh as well. “Goodnight, Lance.”

The area of the room was dimly lit by the cute night light. The cat was sleeping soundly. Keith was snuggled into his sleeping bag, his eyes shut. The electronic clock, which was simply just a screen popping up from a thin block on the coffee table, read that it was 10 p.m. already. Lance was snuggled in a blanket himself, wearing a comfortable outfit for sleeping in and laying on a surprisingly comfortable to lay on couch.

Lance grinned, enjoying the scene, and letting his eyes fall shut.

“Goodnight, Keith.”


	5. Double The Asshole

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah sooo  
> things got so bad i had to go to the er and get a shit ton of testing done to rule off a shit ton of normal, easy to deal with stuff and now i'm pretty much on bed rest with limited movement while waiting for more testing to be done so we can get a better diagnosis than the general 'chronic pain'  
> sorry for not updating for nearly two months but i finally got the fifth chapter done, and even made it an extra long chapter with 10.5k words !! (exactly 8 words under 10.5k actually lmao)  
> writing's going to be really slow for possibly the nest year?? i dunno the medical system sucks when it comes to speed unless you're dying on the spot, and i'm not so i'm not going to get a lot of help quickly  
> but i will not be putting this on hold or anything!! i love this story too much and have too many ideas for it to give it up and it helps me keep going with life and cope so yeah no worries there. i'll update whenever possible <3
> 
> anyway story stuff  
> i decided to keep this named more than strangers because change of plan for what my account are for (i'm fickle sorry)  
> this is my klance of-my-own-imagination account, grey_city is for non-klance stuff, and theoutgoingfish that was newly made is for anything based off of fanart that i got permission to write for  
> also changed the rating to mature because of all the intense sci-fi stuff and ya know they're young adults so it isn't some easy read
> 
> summary of this extra long chapter that i binge wrote within three days and stayed up until 1 a.m. finishing on the last day when i'd only had 6.1k at the beginning of the evening:  
> did i forget to mention pining and big family in the tags

“You lied to me!”

The mullet groaned into his pillow, flipping over and rubbing his eyes before lazily looking up at Lance, who was towering over him with an angered pout.

“You lied,” Lance hissed. He’d spent almost half an hour awake while Keith wasn’t, pondering about everything from the night before.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Keith grumbled, then yawning and shifting slightly in his sleeping bag.

“You _are_ gay!” Lance pointed an accusing finger down at Keith. He was staring straight down at him, standing beside the sleeping the bag and bending over from the waist.

Keith groaned again and flipped over onto his side, closing his eyes. “It’s too early for this, Lance.”

“But Keith, you lied!” Lance exclaimed, waving his arms crazily.

Of course, that didn’t get him Keith’s attention. _What an asshole,_ Lance growled in his thoughts, though he simply grunted out loud and flopped back down onto the couch. He slumped in his seat with an annoyed expression, annoyed by the fact that Keith was fast asleep again. Keith’s eyes were closed, his breathing was shallow, his sleeping bag was slowly rising and falling, and his black curls were a mess and all over the place.

Lance sighed, bored again since he had no one to argue with or bother now. His mind wandered and, to his dismay, began swirling with thoughts about Keith’s sexuality again. He shoved that thought away, though the next thing to come up wasn’t to his liking either. It was the first night; when they’d defused, Shiro called out to them, saying he thought Keith was straight.

Keith had had a boyfriend. Shiro thought Keith was straight. Keith had had a boyfriend behind Shiro’s back. Shiro was Keith’s brother, and they seemed close from what he heard. That could only mean one thing.

“Keith, you’re a closet gay?!”

Lance received a harshly thrown pillow in his face.

“Could you shut up already?!” Keith yelled. “I’m not talking about this right now!” He pulled the sleeping bag over his head. He then mumbled through the bag, “I forgot to take my contacts out so my eyes are _killing_ me.”

Lance smirked, then revealing his teeth in a malevolent smile, not paying any attention to what Keith had mumbled. “So, you admit you were a closet gay before the night at the arena.”

There was a loud, long groan from the sleeping bag.

Lance let out a sigh and hoisted himself up from the couch, making his way to the kitchen counter and rummaging through the cabinets above to find breakfast food. Unsuccessful, he sighed again and looked over his shoulder at the sleeping bag that still had a lump in it. “Where’s the cereal?”

“Stay out of my shit, Lance,” the bag growled.

“Well, _someone_ is a mean grumper this morning,” Lance huffed, crouching down and checking the cabinets underneath the counter.

There was a pause before a quiet voice responded. “Did you just call me a mean grumper?”

“Uh, yeah; what else could I have said?” Lance sassed, still searching for a cereal box -- and preferably not an empty one, like the four he’d found so far.

There was rustling instead of a verbal response, so Lance quickly glanced over his shoulder, finding Keith pouting at his phone while typing away furiously. Lance rolled his eyes, not caring to know what had gotten into Keith. Or rather, not wanting to seem like he cared. He had to play it cool. Why? He wasn't sure. He was confused by himself.

After pulling out the fifth empty box of cereal, Lance exhaled deeply in aggravation and stood up, closing the cabinet with his knee and going over to the fridge. The fridge’s bottom half was a freezer, which he decided to check. _Maybe Keith has waffles_ , he thought, opening the freezer and beginning to rummage through everything in there.

“Bingo!”

There they were. Sitting on a shelf in the bottom drawer was an unopened box of toaster waffles. But, as he went to reach for it, his chip buzzed in his back pocket. With a groan, he pulled his hand out of the freezer and whispered to the waffles, “I’ll be back for you,” before closing the freezer. He whipped out his chip and answered without bothering to read the name.

“And _who_ had the indecency of calling me at this hour?” Lance questioned sassily. Having trouble sleeping and not being able to find breakfast for a good five minutes made the sass level go up a few degrees, which Lance didn’t care to tone down.

“Would you apologize to Keith for calling him a mean grumper and stop trying to make yourself breakfast in his apartment so that he’ll stop texting me? This is the only day I get to sleep in,” Katie’s voice grumbled on the other end. She then mumbled barely loud enough for Lance to hear, “What the fuck is a mean grumper anyway?”

“It’s not my fault he doesn’t know how to cook,” Lance huffed in response. “And if he didn’t want to be called a mean grumper, then he shouldn’t be one.”

“Lance,” Katie scolded, “I’m warning you, apologize and get out of his kitchen.”

Lance rolled his eyes and bent rover, opening the freezer again to take the box of waffles out and place it on the counter. “Yeesh, I guess you’re a mean grumper, too. I didn’t say I wouldn’t pop a waffle in for him,” Lance retaliated.

Katie groaned into the phone and hung up, giving up on him. Keith groaned as well and there was rustling, though Lance dismissed it as he found Keith’s toaster in a cabinet. He placed the small, silver thing down and pressing a small, round button on the top. The toaster’s bottom lit up blue, the little thing beginning to float. Lance pulled two waffles out of the box and popped them in, pressing a button that caused the toaster to swallow the waffles and flash a screen above, reading _WARNING: HOT_. Lance rolled his eyes at the precautionary message meant for kids that hadn’t figured out touching toasters while they’re working hurts. He put the waffles back in the freezer and began digging through the cabinets above the counters.

“Hey, Keith? Where do you keep your energy drinks?” Lance questioned loudly without looking over his shoulder. “I can’t live after a good night’s rest without them.”

“Shouldn’t you have more energy after a good night’s rest?” Keith’s voice replied from close behind with a yawn. Lance glanced over his shoulder quickly to find messy-haired Keith dazedly looking at him, rubbing one eye and placing his free hand over his mouth as he yawned.

Lance’s cheeks began to burn, so he immediately turned his head forward and continued moving black mugs and bowls aside. Was everything Keith had black? Probably. _Keith isn’t cute, Keith isn’t cute, Keith isn’t cute whatsoever,_ Lance attempted to assure himself as he cleared his throat in what came out as a condescending manner -- which was perfect for him to play along with to try and get ahold of himself. “My body isn’t producing enough adrenaline for me to run on since I got a good amount of sleep,” Lance explained as though it were the easiest thing in the world to figure out. He then grumbled. “I hate that they banned coffee.”

“You know, energy drinks aren’t any better for you than coffee,” Keith mentioned, opening the fridge and pulling out a bottle. He shoved it in Lance’s direction. “If the government actually cared about everyone’s health, they would have banned caffeine altogether.”

Lance skeptically looked at the bottle being shoved his way, which contained a light blue liquid, then directing his look at Keith. “What’s this then?”

“It’s a drink my brother and dad created to help with feeling more energetic. It’s all natural, though it looks blue because of some of the chemical reactions in it,” Keith explained, shaking the bottle lightly. “Just take it.”

Lance took it and held it, refusing to open it. “You’re sure this stuff is safe?” He turned the bottle in his hand, analyzing the liquid as the bottle was moved. No bubbles were created, though dark blue streaks were that turned into clouded areas and faded back into the light blue state of the liquid overall.

“I’ve been drinking the stuff for ten years now. Yeah, it’s safe,” Keith assured as the toaster beeped, the waffles popping up. Keith took one and bit into it.

Lance put the bottle down on the counter and took his own waffle, his mind wandering as he bit into his own. Ten years? How old was Keith when he’d started drinking such a sketchy drink?  
_Wait, how old is Keith?!_

Lance nearly choked on his bite of waffle as the thought crossed his head. It was important to know though, right? He glanced at Keith to find Keith raising an eyebrow at him. He swallowed his bite of waffle and cleared his throat. “So, ten years? How old were you when you started needing sketchy energy drinks?”

“I was twelve, and it isn’t sketchy,” Keith groaned.

Lance blinked at Keith as Keith took another bite of his waffle, the two not breaking eye contact. Keith raised his both of his eyebrows this time.

“When’s your birthday?” Lance questioned.

“The twenty-first of December. Yours?” Keith asked.

“No way,” Lance mumbled, which received another raised eyebrow from Keith. “You’re twenty-two years old now, right?”

Keith nodded slowly, his normal blank expression returning.

Lance groaned, biting into his waffle with a huff and leaning back against the counter. “You’re exactly a month older than me,” he murmured after swallowing.

Keith narrowed his eyes, which Lance caught from the corner of his eyes. “You should listen to me more, then.”

Lance’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding, right?”

Keith smirked, taking the last of his waffle instead of responding.

“You’re only older by a month! That’s _nothing!_ ” Lance waved his arms, accidentally losing his grip on his waffle and sending it flying across the room.

“Says the person who apparently doesn’t like me because I like the color red,” Keith scoffed, opening the fridge and taking out his own bottle of the sketchy drink. He opened it and chugged all of it, and crushed the bottle, which turned into little, luminous white shards that faded into the air instantaneously. Keith didn’t bother watching the shards, instead placing his elbows on the counter and leaning back against it while looking up at the ceiling.

“The bottle is even more sketchy than the drink,” Lance murmured as he watched the last little shard sparkle away.

“They’re something I built with Shiro when we were in our teens,” Keith explained. “It’s safe for the environment. Better than plastic since when crushed it turns into gas.”

“Let me guess, more chemical reactions?” Lance questioned, taking what was his bottle of sketchy energy drink in his hand again.

“Yep. The bottle has a thin layer of a liquid element that reacts with the element used for the outer layers that you hold and that the drinks touch. There’s a layering of yet another element blocking the liquid from the outer layers, which disintegrates into microscopic pieces when you crush it. The liquid then reacts with the outer layers and forms a safe gas,” Keith went on. “We worked really hard, making hundreds of prototypes to make one that was safe for the environment.”

“What about the microscopic pieces?” Lance asked, still leaving the bottle unopened. Sure, he was tired and not feeling his best, but that didn’t mean he was going to drink something that changed its shade of blue and was kept in a bottle that disappeared.

“They don’t do anything. If they get into your lungs, they’ll be pumped right out. They attach to oxygen atoms but don’t react,” Keith explained.

Lance squinted at Keith. “What if there are droplets of the drink left in the bottom or on the sides?”

Keith shook his head. “There can’t be. The liquid is repelled by the inner layer.” He then chuckled. “Just drink it already and don’t forget to crush the bottle.” He straightened and walked off, presumably to his room to change.

Lance stared at the bottle for a moment and shrugged, giving up on being hesitant. He opened the bottle and chugged it all, letting out a relieved sigh with a smile afterwards. He then crushed the bottle and watched the shards in awe. He even touched one; it just turned to air at his touch. It was a masterpiece. Keith and Shiro were geniuses, and Lance couldn’t deny it.

Lance looked at the ceiling and just thought for a moment. He hadn’t had a crush on a boy since high school; there was no way that was what was going on now, right? He wasn’t growing one for Keith, right? Katie had to be wrong. So did Klance. _Keith’s too much of an asshole._

_A hot asshole._

_But an asshole._

“Lance!” Keith’s voice suddenly rang through the apartment.

Lance knit his eyebrows and walked over to the doorway of Keith’s room, peering in to find Keith on the floor by his bed. “Keith, what are you doing?”

“Your cat is under my bed,” Keith gulped, sitting up and looking back at Lance. “Can you get her?”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Move aside, scaredy-cat,” Lance teased while getting on the floor, lying down to stretch his arms under the bed and pull out the fluff ball causing trouble for their host. Sitting up, he placed the cat in his lap and pet her, looking around until he spotted Keith flipping through the clothes hanging in his bedroom closet.

Lance carefully stood up while holding the cat, using one arm to hold her once he was standing. He asked Keith, “What are you doing?”

“Here.” Lance was startled by the clothes Keith suddenly thrown at him. “Assuming you don’t want to stay in the same clothes you wore yesterday.”

Lance made sure not to let the jeans and gray tank top that’d been thrown to him fall to the floor using his free arm. The jeans, to his surprise, were a normal blue and the gray tank top was a very light gray. There was also a pair of red and black boxers in between the tank top and jeans, which Lance raised his eyebrow at Keith for. “Why do you have black boxers with red hearts on them?”

“Just put them on,” Keith groaned. “Don’t make me regret trying to be kind.”

“Well sorr- _y,_ Mr. Grumper,” Lance sassed back, emphasizing the second syllable of the word ‘sorry’. “In exchange, here.” Lance walked over to Keith and transferred the cat to him.

Keith willingly accepted the cat. Lance stood there for a second, watching Keith blink at the cat who was blinking back at him. His expression then went worryful, Lance taking that cue to walk away. “Wait, Lance! What do I do with it?”

“You held her yesterday! Don’t freak out now. That’s all you have to do with her,” Lance called over his shoulder with a laugh, then shutting the bathroom door behind him. It was quite convenient that the bathroom door was right across the hall from Keith’s bedroom door.

Lance first slipped off all of his clothes, of course, then put on Keith’s boxers. Surprisingly, they fit quite well. A bit loose, but not enough to bother him. What bothered him was the fact that he was wearing Keith’s boxers. He took a deep breath, muttering to himself, “No gay thoughts, no gay thoughts, no gay thoughts,” while squirming into the skinny jeans he’d been given. It wasn’t his fault he had big feet, or that Keith had an obsession with skinny jeans apparently. He finally got the skinny jeans on after trying multiple positions -- such as sitting on the side of the bathtub, sitting on the counter, and sitting on the floor and attempting to put both feet through at the same time. He zipped them up and shoved the tank top on, not caring about the looseness of it. Though, that did give Lance an idea of just how much muscle the mullet boy had since everything he had seemed to fit him perfectly.

Lance gathered his clothes lazily and hung them over his arm, though before he exited, he made sure to transfer his chip over from his own pants to the back pocket of the pants he was now wearing. He opened the bathroom door to find a bare, muscular back in eyesight before a black -- surprise, surprise -- t-shirt was slid over it.

Did the world hate him? The world hated him.

At least he’d been right about the muscles.

“So,” Keith suddenly looked over his shoulder and grinned at the now-bright-red Lance, pushing his glasses that only then Lance realized he hadn’t worn the day before up on his nose, “what’s the plan for today? Are you finally going to relieve me of your company?”

Lance’s cheeks immediately paled as he glared at Keith, slumping his back. “Jeez, don’t say it like I’m a burden or something,” he muttered, then straightening and letting out a huff. He put his free hand on his hip. “I don’t really have any plans for today aside from taking the cat back to the center.”

Keith’s grin faded and his gaze averted, rubbing his neck with his other hand on his hip. “Well, uh, you could drop her off and then come back for more fusing practice. We don’t have that much time before the next big competition, so…” Keith’s voice trailed off and he shut his mouth.

Lance shrugged his shoulders. “Sure. Can I head out now? I don’t want to return her late.”

Keith nodded. “Sure. Want me to stay here?”

“Sure,” Lance replied simply. “Probably for the best. Nyma doesn’t like when people are brought to the center that aren’t customers.”

They both grinned at each other for a split second before Lance turned his attention to the cat. He picked up the cat, who had been laying on Keith’s bed in a ball, and brought her to her carriage. She wasn’t too reluctant to go inside; fairly enough, she’d been in and out of it every day since they couldn’t leave the cats at the center. Lance picked up the carriage and nodded to Keith before leaving.

It was the same as always, for the most part. The only differences about the return of the cat that specific day was that Lance had a much shorter drive and was screaming internally the entire drive there and back.

“Okay, Lance, you’ve got this,” he muttered to himself as he sat in his car, calming himself before re-entering the apartment building. “Hold yourself together and don’t let anything on.”

His chip suddenly buzzed in his back pocket, causing his to let out something of a scream. He was not in a state to be startled, but of course, the world hated him. He groaned and pulled out his chip, looking at the name. He huffed and answered, a small screen popping up with a circular contact photo of a metal square pyramid -- designs on the visible sides glowing blue. “What do you--”

“Did you have sex?”

Lance’s jaw dropped. His face began burning. “What, how, why, w-why is _that_ what you’re asking?! O-of course not!”

“So you did?” Lance could _feel_ Katie’s smirk through the phone with the tone she was using.

“No! W-we didn’t! We never would!” Lance yelled frantically. The world really did hate him.

“Yeah, try telling me that in, uh, a year,” Katie snickered. “Anyway, what are you guys doing for the day? Are you going on a date?”

“Oh my god, Katie, fucking stop,” Lance groaned, putting his hand over his face. “We aren’t dating, we aren’t in love, and we most definitely aren’t fucking.”

Katie simply snickered. The laughter couldn’t be considered giggling; it was too evilly toned.

“Was there anything important you were calling about?” Lance growled.

“Nope. Just wanted to see how far you guys got by having a sleepover, though it doesn’t seem like you guys got far. Did you seriously not have a late-night-talk? Where you spill secrets and memories?” Katie was seemingly interrogating him. That’s how Lance felt, at least.

“No. We did some practicing and went to sleep. That’s it.” Lance hung up on her and let out a groan, resting his head on the steering wheel.

Lance took a deep breath and sat up, getting out of his car. He didn’t have to lock it since it locked automatically thanks to hidden cameras of a security system implemented into cars about three decades ago. He simply walked away, into the apartment building and up to Keith’s apartment. He knocked and was immediately answered by a grinning Keith.

“Hey,” Keith greeted, stepping out of Lance’s way but holding the door open for him. “Welcome back.”

Did Keith typically welcome people? Lance hadn’t been welcomed the night before. But, he _had_ barged in with a cat unexpectedly, so it was seemingly fair that he was greeted now since he was expected.

Lance stretched his arms and walked a few feet in, then taking a step back to the side in order to face Keith. “So, freestyle, right?”

“First things first. I forgot to tell you last night that I took your tarts out of the oven while you were getting the sleeping bag from my room,” Keith mentioned as he shut the front door and walked over to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and pulled out a plate that had been sealed with wrap, then closing the fridge and placing the plate on the counter. “Can I have one?”

Oh man, Lance’s heart could not handle this. Keith was asking his permission with the cutest expression of anticipation. Lance couldn’t deny that even though he’d only met Keith the weekend before, he was slowly falling head over heels for that mullet boy.

Was Lance an idiotic romantic? The answer to that was yes. Did he hate himself for it? The answer to that was also yes. And did that mean he was going to go after Keith? The answer to that was absolutely not.

He had to play everything cool, of course.

Lance gulped and rubbed the back of his neck, looking away from Keith. “Uh, yeah, duh. I made them in your home, uh, so, of course you can have one!” He laughed nervously while internally scolding himself for having trouble keeping his composure.

There was a moment of silence, where Keith simply stared at the wrapped tarts. Lance watched Keith, confused by his hesitation.

“I’ll have after we do some practice,” Keith decided without looking up at Lance, instead walking over to the radio and turning it on.

“Alright, let’s do this,” Lance replied with a shrug. He just hoped Keith would like the tarts when he tried them; he felt so stupid for forgetting he was making tarts in the evening. The fusing had gotten him caught up and caused him to completely forget, along with the photo and questioning himself and Keith.

“Uh, Lance?”

Lance’s head shook as he let out a light laugh, shaking out of his trance and apologetically smiling at Keith. “Sorry. I, uh, I’m trying to find the music, if you know what I mean,” Lance lied easily, taking a few steps closer to what was the designated living room area. It wasn’t completely a lie since he’d never heard the song Keith had on at the moment.

“Here.” Keith held out his hand to Lance with his normal deadpan expression.

After a second of Keith not caring to explain himself, Lance raised his eyebrows and leaned his head forward with a slight shake to signify his confusion and want for Keith to explain what he was holding his hand out for.

Keith rolled his eyes. “Let me help you, idiot.”

Lance huffed but took Keith’s hand. “I am not an idiot,” he insisted.

Keith didn’t bother responding. Instead, Lance followed Keith’s movements and began moving freely after a few lines of lyrics, though they never broke contact, always touching each other in some way. Before they knew it, they were back in the pose that had brought them together the night before. The swirling lights had appeared too, but were quickly beginning to fade again as the song died out itself. Lance bit his lip as he began to panic, looking down at Keith. He really didn’t want to have to ask Keith. Really, really didn’t. It was already embarrassing enough feeling himself caving into feelings for Keith this early into knowing him.

Keith nodded up at him while the lights were still fading. “Just get it over with,” Keith said in something of a soft sigh, looking at Lance’s lips and leaning in.

Lance, despite the red of his cheeks and the pounding in his chest, shut his eyes and closed the space between them. He allowed the red and orange lights to take them away, though quickly pulled away once their eyes were in the dark space again and able to open their eyes without being blinded.

“Good morning, Mr. Emo and Mr. Prince,” Klance’s voice yawned. They suddenly appeared in a burst of something like a white mist, revealing them-self standing on a cloud. All they wore was a t-shirt and jeans this time, thankfully. The t-shirt was light gray with black sleeves, which was understandable based on what Keith and Lance were wearing. Klance’s shirt was tucked into their blue jeans, which were held up by a black belt. They were grinning, unsurprisingly. “Thank any god that there is for your coordination in clothing this morning.” They stretched their arms up and yawned again.

“Of course that’s the first thing you say,” Lance sighed. He caught Keith rolling his eyes at Klance instead of saying anything.

Klance sat down on their cloud, then getting on their stomach and crossing their legs with their knees bent so their feet were in the air. They placed their chin on the back of their hands, which were propped up using their elbows on the cloud. “I see you two have bonded further by unlocking that Keith is a closet gay and that Keith is a genius.” Klance hummed for a moment before continuing their thought. “I wonder what will be unlocked about Lance soon that will even out the bond and bring it further.”

Lance rolled his eyes this time, putting his hands on his hips. “None of that is important right now.”

“It is if you want me to take over the body for you,” Klance pointed out, pointing a finger at Lance.

“So when exactly are you going to take over the body?” Keith questioned, finally saying something. Lance turned his head to whoever was speaking, so now he was looking at a very unhappy Keith who was glaring at the being in charge of them.

Klance hummed again, rolling over onto their back and placing their hands on their chest while their head hung over the side of the cloud. “When I want to, of course.”

There was a pause, Keith and Lance glancing at each other. Both had glum faces.

Lance leaned on one leg, putting the opposite hand on his now inward-jutted hip. “You know, now I’m starting to realize you’re more of an asshole than he is.” Lance pointed his free thumb over his at Keith, the rest of his fingers curled against his palm.

Klance laughed, flinging his arms out to rest them on the cloud. “Of course I am! I’m an asshole fused with another asshole! You two may be different types of assholes, but you’re both still assholes! So I’m double the asshole!” They smiled at Keith and Lance upside-down.

Lance gawked at them in a weirded-out manner.

“That’s not something to be proud of,” Keith scolded, crossing his arms.

Lance looked at Keith while gesturing his hand to Klance. “Is there any way we can make him more bearable?”

“I am not a ‘him’! Refer to me as they! I don’t have any genitals, nor do I need any,” Klance cut in.

“I wasn’t asking you,” Lance growled, suddenly staring daggers at the annoying being. He let out a huff and returned his gaze to Keith. “Well?”

Keith uncrossed one arm to put a hand to his mouth in a thinking position. “We could call my brother and see if he can help us,” Keith suggested.

“That means we’ll have to un-fuse--”

“ _Defuse,_ ” Klance corrected.

“-- right?” Lance asked Keith while going back to icily glaring at Klance.

“Yeah,” Keith responded simply.

Lance’s hand was suddenly tugged, being pulled into the position they’d been told they had to be in to defuse. They nodded at each other and closed their eyes.

“Don’t leave me! You just got here!” Klance whined.

Lance chose to ignore them, and seemingly so did Keith since he didn’t say anything either.

“Three, two, one,” Lance counted down in a whisper.

They pulled away and opened their eyes, finding themselves back in the apartment. Lance collapsed down on the couch with a groan, leaning his head back to rest on the back of the couch and putting his hands over his face. “That guy is unbearable.”

Keith didn’t respond to him, instead saying, “Hey, Shiro. Lance and I need a favor from you.”

Lance sat up to listen to the conversation between Keith and the image of Shiro’s face on Keith’s screen. It was still, meaning Shiro didn’t have his camera on. Assumably, neither did Keith, since he was staring up at the ceiling despite holding his chip up. He was leaning back against the wall on the other side of the room, one knee bent with the foot against the wall as well.

“Sure thing! What can I do for you?” Shiro’s voice came through the screen.

“Could you and Allura give us private lessons at the studio? We’re having some trouble with fusing, and I thought you and her might be able to help us since you two were partners not that long ago,” Keith explained.

“I’m sure we can help with that! If you swing by tomorrow around 5, the ballet class will be over and we’ll be the only ones there,” Shiro agreed.

“Thanks, Shiro. I’ll text you about any changes.” Keith hung up with a grin and lowered his head, catching Lance’s eyes. “That sound good to you?”

Lance nodded. “I get out of work at 4:30, so if you text me the address of wherever we’re meeting, I should be able to get there on time.”

Keith nodded in response, then turning his gaze back to his chip and pulling up text messages. Lance looked away; sure, he was nosy, but he wasn’t going to be rude and peek at Keith’s texts. After a moment of looking around the apartment, bored, Lance’s own chip buzzed. He took it out with a skeptical look. He wasn’t expecting any calls. What was worse was that the icon that popped up was Sera’s -- a picture of her with a big smile, holding a platter of cookies.

“Hey, Charlene needs someone to watch the kids while she and I go out shopping, and Coran’s out doing errands. Tsuyu’s already here but Charlene wants you here too since apparently Corinne got herself stuck in a basket the last time she left the three with only one babysitter,” Sera informed cheerfully with a little giggle.

Lance beamed, standing up excitedly. “Okay, I’ll be over in ten minutes or so.” He hung up and looked over at Keith, who was now staring at him. “I have to go babysit my nieces. Tsuyu always comes over to help out with them. Want to come?”

Once the words left Lance’s mouth, he immediately regretted them. He realized Tsuyu would probably nag them in an even more annoying way than Katie did, which Lance didn’t need. But, there was no turning back.  
Keith shrugged. “I have nothing better to do.”

Lance kept his smile, despite not exactly looking forward to what he knew was coming. “Cool. Just to warn you, there are three of them; two are eleven and one is six. They can be a handful sometimes.” He genuinely smiled, his fake smile widening. It always warmed his heart thinking about the three little gingers that he got to babysit quite frequently.

Keith’s expression became worried. “Please tell me they aren’t mini versions of you.”

Lance scoffed. “Mini versions of me would be awesome, for your information! But no, they’re not at all like me. They’re still fun. Come on, I’ll drive.”

“I’ll meet you outside,” Keith said blankly, walking off to his room.

Lance shrugged to himself and walked out, shutting the front door behind him and making his way out of the building. Instead of getting into the car and risking the clueless emo not figuring out where he was, he leaned back against the side of his car with one foot crossed over the other and his arms crossed. He looked up at the blue sky. The clouds were looking green, which made sense. A storm had been predicted for the weekend, though luckily nothing had come down yet. It’d been storming frequently lately, which also made sense based on the time of year.

After a minute of finding random shapes in the clouds, his shoulder was tapped. He looked down to find Keith grinning at him and holding a sealed container in his hands, which contained Lance’s tarts. Lance raised an eyebrow at him, though he unlocked the car and got in. Keith got in a moment later, making sure not to get hit on the busy street. Lance started the car and carefully maneuvered his way into the street. Lance was thankful it hadn’t been as busy when he was dropping the cat off.

“Does she have a name?” Keith suddenly asked, breaking the silence between them.

“Does who have a name?” Lance questioned, confused. He kept his eyes on the road.

“The cat you brought over. You never called her by a name,” Keith clarified.

Lance shook his head slightly. “Nyma didn’t know what to name her. She just came in yesterday, so I was the first person assigned to her.”

Keith hummed in acknowledgement instead of responding. Lance heard the container open next to him, which he was wondering was made of some material invention of Shiro’s and Keith’s or if it was simply plastic.

“These are really good, by the way,” Keith suddenly reported.

Lance grinned triumphantly. “Family recipe. They’re raspberry honey tarts. I can give you the recipe if you like them enough.”

“That’d be nice,” Keith mumbled through a bite of one.

Lance didn’t know what else to say, so he did his go-to; he turned his music on.

Keith immediately choked. “Is this Beyonce?!”

“Yeah, got a problem with it?” Lance immediately sassed.

“She’s from a hundred years ago at least. You _cannot_ be serious.”

“Oh, but I am. She’s like an angel.” Lance sighed dreamily.

“Your musical taste needs help just as much as the taste of the Fusees at the arena. And almost as much as your personality overall does.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”

“Nothing of course, Mr. Prince.”

“Don’t you start calling me that, too, Mr. Emo Grumper.”

“Prince Idiot.”

“Emo Grumpy Troll.”

“Of Dumbland.”

“Guarding the legendary Caves of Asshole-ness.”

“Where people don’t know that ‘defuse’ is the correct term.”

“Where people don’t know what good music is.”

“And where the music makes any outsider’s ears bleed.”

“And where all they wear is black and sometimes blood red because they’re apparently goth _and_ emo.”

“A kingdom called Dumbland where their prince is named Idiot since he doesn’t know that you can’t put ‘un’ on ‘fuse’ and where the music that’s played makes any outsider’s ears bleed. Can you imagine that?”

“A cave legendary for the assholes of trolls that live in it, who also don’t have a musical sense or good ears, and are ruled over by an emo troll known as Grumper. Can you imagine _that?_ ”

There was a pause as both of them snorted, the both of them then bursting out laughing. They came to a red light, so Lance glanced over at Keith, who was smiling widely while staring at the street. Lance was grinning. He turned the music off with a loud, short exhale. Keith looked over for a second and smiled directly at him, and Lance smiled back. It was a good moment.

Of course, that had to end with Lance’s luck because the world hated him.

Droplets of rain pattered against his windshield as the light turned green.

“Oh no,” Lance muttered.

“What?” Keith asked.

Lance sighed. “The girls won’t be happy about this. They adore playing outside.”

“If they’re anything like you, that won’t stop them,” Keith murmured loud enough and clear enough for Lance to understand.

Lance huffed. “I told you, they aren’t.” He then mumbled under his breath, “In this sense, I wish they were.”

There was silence between them as the suddenly pouring rain pattered against the car. Lance pressed a blue button near the steering wheel with a semi-circle on it. A blue dome came up down from the roof of the car, the screen then turning invisible -- more so than the glass window. The rain left on the window was blown away and the street was visible again. They finally left the towering buildings behind, entering streets where the tallest the buildings got was three floors above ground. The grocer came into sight and Lance’s heart lit up as he spotted Tsuyu’s yellow truck parked in front. He parked behind it, pushed the blue button so that it popped back out and the dome was retracted, sipped in a breath, and looked at Keith with a smile. “Ready to run in?”

“We’re going to be soaked just by walking two feet,” Keith grumbled, though he whipped open his door, stepped out, shut it behind him, and sprinted in.

Lance laughed and followed Keith’s example. Luckily, the rain wasn’t bad enough he couldn’t stay in the same clothes. Was that even lucky? He was still wearing Keith’s clothes. He didn’t know what to think anymore.

“This rain _definitely_ came out of _nowhere!_ That’s why it _must_ be the work of the Peanut Butter Monster!” a very determined, somewhat high-pitched voice announced.

The voice came from a girl standing near the front of the store, talking to two other girls -- one the same height and one much, much shorter. The two older girls were both approximately 4’3”, had bright blue eyes, freckles on pale skin, and wavy orange hair. The younger girl, standing at a height of maybe 2’10”, looked the same except she had very few freckles. The announcer was wearing a yellow tank top, pink skirt, gray sneakers, and had a way-too-big red baseball cap put over her head that Lance assumed she’d stolen from Tsuyu. Her hair was up in a ponytail reaching halfway down her back. She stood with one hand on her hip and the other hand up, pointing at the ceiling. The other older girl was wearing a light gray t-shirt, jeans, and purple sneakers. Her hair was shoulder length, kept down with nicely cut bangs laid against her forehead. She was simply standing there, holding one arm. The little girl was wearing a light blue sundress and was barefoot, though her nearby black sandals had visibly been kicked off due to one of them being left on its side and the other very far away from it. Her hair was down, reaching to the middle of her chest in a mess of knotted waves. She was sitting on the floor with her hands in between her legs, playing with the skirt of her dress in her hands while staring up at the announcer girl with a wide smile.

The announcer girl took a step back and pointed a finger at Lance. “Agent Lance! You’re late! The Peanut Butter Monster is on the loose and we don’t even have our jackets on yet! Just _how_ exactly do you expect us to defeat him if we don’t have our jackets and have a lousy leader?!” she dramatically accused.

The other two girls looked over, the older one of the two darting her eyes between Keith and Lance and back at Keith, then grabbing a sketchbook off of the windowsill and walking away while muttering, “Screw this, I’m going to draw.” Her voice was lower and much, much softer than her twin’s.

“Delia! Language!” the announcer girl scolded, turning her finger to her twin.

The youngest of the girls threw her arms up, dropping her skirt and smiling open-mouthed at Lance. She squeezed her hands, which was part of her and Lance’s personal language -- she wanted to be picked up and given a hug and a kiss on the head.

“Come here, Corinne,” Lance softly chuckled, walking over and picking the little girl up. He sat her on one arm, holding her back with the other so that he could hold her close to him and squeeze her.

She audibly puffed air out of her mouth as Lance squeezed her -- her way of giggling. Lance loosened his grip so that he could look at her and she slowly moved her hands for Lance to read. _You’re all wet!_ She always balled her hands and opened them to represent exclamation points, even in situations where she was upset -- which, Lance swore, was the cutest thing he could ever see; an angry child flicking their fingers next to their face. Even Keith couldn’t beat that.

“Well,” Lance paused to peck the top of her head, “I did just have to run in through the rain that the Peanut Butter Monster sent.”

“Who’s the Peanut Butter Monster?” Keith suddenly asked, all heads turning to him.

“Someone who once was a great ally of ours. He’s now turned to the dark side,” the announcer girl dramatically explained with a menacing look as she put her fist to her chest. “Our once sort-of-not-really uncle Tsuyoshi has turned on us and brought this wretched storm to ruin our playdate with uncle Lance.”

Keith blinked at her with wide eyes with a sharp inhale, which caused Lance to snort.

“My my, Olivie,” Lance said praisingly, turning his gaze to her. “Maybe you should take over as the leader of the agents.”

“And _how_ do you suppose I do that?! I’m only eleven years old! You’re something like fifty, so it’s a suitable job for you!” The announcer girl, Olivie, made everything dramatic.

Lance’s face dropped as he grumbled, “I’m twenty-two.” He sighed and put a grin back on. “Well, then, shall we go get our jackets?”

“And you simply can’t forget, Agent Lance. This new recruit must go through the acceptance ceremony,” Olivie reminded with the hand that had been on her hip placed behind her back and her pointing finger directed at Keith. She took a few steps towards Keith and leaned in to ask quietly and politely, “What’s your name? Are you allergic to peanuts?”

“Uh, Keith, and no,” Keith answered slowly, his eyes still wide. It was easy to tell he wasn’t around kids much.

Corinne patted Lance’s shoulder twice, her signal for wanting down. Lance crouched down to carefully place the mute six-year-old on the ground. She suddenly ran towards the back of the story.

“Hey, no fair, Agent Corinne! Just because you’re the youngest of us doesn’t mean you get a head start!” Olivie yelled, running after Corinne.

“They’re not at all what I expected,” Keith mumbled sideways to Lance as they both watched the girls race to the stairs, Olivie obviously faking not being able to pass Corinne to keep Corinne happy.

“I told you, they’re way different than me,” Lance beamed proudly in a hushed tone, glad that Olivie was too busy entertaining Corinne to hear them.

“Childish, I know,” a soft voice grumbled.

Keith and Lance turned their heads to Delia, who was sitting on the large windowsill, her legs dangling over the side. A green screen was floating mid air, a little semi-sphere sitting next to her on the sill. She had a matching green pen in her hand, doodling away.

“Delia, why aren’t you joining us?” Lance questioned gently, walking over and standing in front of her.

She shrugged. “I’m too grown-up for games like that. I’d rather draw than pretend our lives are in danger and treat the implausible situation in such a childish manner.”

“Well, Little Miss Bookworm Artist, I’m all grown up and I still like games like this. Loosen up and make your sisters happy.” Lance tapped the side of her non-drawing arm lightly with the back of his hand. “Come on. We aren’t complete without you.”

“Lance, that’s cheesy, even for you,” Delia groaned.

“Just do this for me,” Lance softly urged with a small grin.

Delia huffed, putting her pen down and swiping her hand over the screen to make it disappear, it narrowing as it shot into the semi-sphere placed on the sill. She crossed her arms. “Only if Keith joins us and I get to give him his jacket.”

“There’s my girl!” Lance laughed and punched Delia’s arm gently in a playful manner, causing Delia to smile and giggle a bit herself.

Her eyes suddenly widened and she screeched, “Wait, no! I forgot to save!” Though she was quiet for the most part, unlike her twin, Delia could yell when she wanted to. She sighed unhappily and slouched with a pout. “Why are drawing programs and Word the only things that don’t save automatically?”

Lance gave her an apologetic, half-scrunched frown. “Some things don’t change even after decades of complaints, huh? I used to do that all the time with my school essays.” Lance then grinned and ruffled her hair. “I’m sure you’ll be able to draw it again later. If not, you’ll draw something even better.”

Delia rolled her eyes and rolled off the sill, carefully picking up her semi-sphere and pen. She put the pen behind her ear and held the semi-sphere as she headed towards the stairs. “Let’s not upset Co-Leader Olivie anymore than we already have today.”

The three of them made their way upstairs and to Lance’s room to find Olivie and Corinne sitting on what was Lance’s nicely made bed, though Coran’s dog was making a mess of it while trying to make herself a nest.

Lance sighed. “Macy, really?”

“Agent Lance, not the time! We have to get on with this ceremony quickly so that we can defeat the Peanut Butter Monster soon!”

Delia raced ahead and hopped onto the bed herself, picking up Macy and placing the white fluff in her lap. Macy happily breathed out while resting her small snout on Delia’s knees. “Yeah, I want cookies.”

Lance chuckled and opened his closet, reaching into the corner to pull out the first five leather jackets. Two of them were black crops, which he gave to Olivie and Corinne, then giving Delia a dark blue one,

and keeping a light blue one for himself. He put it on like a cape, tying the sleeves at the front of his neck. He kept a maroon one slung over his arm and stood in front of Keith while Olivie and Delia chanted nearly in unison, “We must save our home from the Peanut Butter Monster!”

Both girls chanted while giggling and exchanging looks while making capes of their own jackets. Olivie then helped Corinne tighten hers, which kept slipping off.

“Do you, Keith, accept the responsibility of the missions ahead?” Olivie continued on her own.

Keith looked at Lance with an expression that was a mixture of confusion and worry.

“Just say yes,” Lance practically mouthed, he whispered so quietly.

“Uh, yeah,” Keith stammered an answer, still staring at Lance who was trying not to laugh. Keith narrowed his eyes at Lance and Lance stuck his tongue out at him. Lance’s back was turned to the girls, so why not?

“Then I, Co-Leader Agent Olivie, dub thee Agent Keith, our newest recruit. Me and Lance will have to see you in action to give you a full title,” Olivie clarified. “Leader Agent Lance, will you do the honors?”

Lance saw the worry in Keith’s face and his heart tightened as he leaned in, swinging the Jacket over Keith’s head and pulling the sleeves over Keith’s shoulders to tie it on him.

“You are now officially Agent Keith. Welcome to our group,” Lance said with a nod and a smile.

Keith grinned. Very slightly, but the edges of his mouth were still turned upwards. Lance’s heart relaxed.

“Now, onto the exacts of today’s mission!” Olivie jumped off of the bed and stood in the middle of the room. She narrowed her eyes at the two adults and pointed her finger at the ground, extending it a second time as a signal.

Lance tugged Keith to sit down on the floor as he did himself. This was the tradition that was the make-believe game Lance always played with his nieces. He was a lot taller than them, to be fair, so they felt a lot better when he sat. Their mother and father weren’t particularly tall, so Lance was a giant to them.

“So, as you saw outside, there’s a _huge_ rainstorm that suddenly came pouring in! We saw the Peanut Butter Monster run into the kitchen shop with our own eyes and there’s no doubt that he’s up to no good! He’s probably trying to steal our peanut butter cookies for the gajillionth time! How are we going to stop him this time, Agent Lance?” Olivie made everything dramatic: her tone, her arm movements, and even the placement of her feet that changed as she spoke.

Lance puffed out his cheeks and puckered his lips to make a silly face -- another tradition -- to represent some form of thinking, even though he really didn’t have to. “I say we grab the guns and make a sneak attack, getting him from all sides,” Lance declared after a moment of the girls giggling, smiling malevolently.

“Excellent plan, Leader Lance,” Delia said with a nod and the most serious expression she could pull off in the moment -- which was a very obviously forced one that immediately cracked into a smile when she finished Lance’s name.

“Arm us up, Agent Lance!” Olivie saluted to Lance, which was her way of giving him permission to stand again in order to get the guns.

Lance stood up and winked at Keith, who he knew was completely confused already, so it was an opportunity to tease him and confuse him further. And it really was. Keith was looking up at Lance dumbfoundedly from his seat on the floor. Lance walked back over to his closet and took some orange, plastic Nerf guns off of the shelf. Sure, Keith had gotten a radio and old books from Katie, but Lance had gotten some of the best things; he’d gotten toy swords and Nerf guns that they and Tsuyu had battles with now and then -- and that the girls enjoyed using.

“Okay, agents, lineup!” Lance ordered in a low voice with a serious expression, trying to mimic the bosses of groups in action shows to make the girls laugh.

The girls did as they lined up in their normal order; Olivie was first, Delia was in the middle, and Corinne was last. They all exchanged glances and nods, then holding their hands out with their palms up. Macy had been placed back in the nest she’d created in Lance’s blankets. Keith stayed on the floor, clearly unsure of what to do.

“Stand next to Corinne and hold your hands out,” Olivie whisper-yelled over to Keith with a hand cupped against one side of her mouth.

Keith stood up and did as he was told, looking down at the short girl for a moment. Lance noticed the two exchanging grins, which made him grin. He then shook his head once and made his serious boss face again. He handed Olivie a medium-sized gun and saluted to her. She took the gun in one hand and put it at one side in a series of sudden movements to salute back. They’d watched too many army shows together, honestly. Lance moved on to give Delia a medium-sized gun herself. They exchanged salutes and Lance crouched down in front of Corinne, giving her a small gun and saluting her. She nodded back, as her hands were just barely big enough to hold the gun without any help. She needed both hands. Lance gently ruffled her hair again with a small grin and stood up, giving Keith a large gun. He saluted to Keith and winked again, which received him two raised eyebrows. He rolled his eyes in response, causing Keith’s expression to scrunch in pure confusion, and turned around to salute everyone while holding his own large gun.

“Agents, rule review,” Lance stated. “Rule number one. When the Monster says stop, we stop, because we’re nice people aiming towards a nice world, and not obeying boundaries would not be nice. Rule number two. Remember each of you only have three bullets, so use them wisely and do not use them on your fellow agents. Rule number three…” Lance paused, a malevolent smile forming on his face. “Last one to the kitchen door is a rotten egg!”

Lance raced out of the room while chuckling. The girls were giggling while chasing after him, though through their giggling they were shushing each other. Little Corinne had her mouth open and was tapping her finger to her lips in a hushing motion. From there, their journey was simple. They crawled from the bottom of the stairwell to the kitchen’s entrance door, then when Lance counted to three, they bursted into the kitchen and pelted Tsuyu with bullets. Of course, Tsuyu had been expecting them, so he had his back to the door while supposedly arranging something on the counter near the door. There was nothing on the counter in actuality.

“Aw, I’m all out!” Olivie whined.

“Me too,” Delia huffed.

“Ditto,” Lance joined in.

Corinne shook her gun to signal that she was out, too. So, everyone’s eyes turned to Keith in the corner, holding his gun tightly and not saying a word. Lance nodded his head towards Tsuyu while staring Keith down. Was Keith seriously that clueless? Apparently. Keith sucked in an audible breath and marched over to Lance, shoving the gun into Lance’s chest.

“I’m sorry, Leader, but I can’t do this.” Keith’s bluntly still-confused face was a sight that Lance could barely contain himself from snickering at. Delia already was, and Corinne was tilting her head.

Olivie, on the other hand, was glaring at Lance. “Lance, how the heckling heck did you befriend such a bad actor? And why did you bring him _here?_ ”

“Well, he and I had a sleepover last night at his place, so I thought I’d bring him back with me,” Lance explained with a sweet grin in Olivie’s direction. “He doesn’t have any kids to play with, but don’t worry, he’ll get used to it with time. You three are the reason Tsuyu and I learned to act so well.”

There was clapping, obviously coming from little hands because of its high pitch, and everyone turned to Corinne. She looked at Lance and signed, _What’s going on?_

“Let’s get back to the game!” Olivie declared, throwing one hand to the sky and putting her gun to her hip.

Lance crouched down and set Keith’s gun down on the ground, along with his own. He pushed aside the hair in Corinne’s face to kiss her forehead. “Don’t worry about it. Just your sisters being silly,” Lance whispered to her.

She smiled at him in response and signed, _They’re always silly!_

The hand thing got Lance’s heart again and he brought Corinne into a tight hug, then saying in a goofy, quiet voice, “You are the silliest bunch I’ve ever met! And I love you all so, so much because silliness makes the world spin!”

Corinne giggled against his neck, which made him smile. He gave her one last kiss before picking both guns up and handing Keith’s his again while Olivie and Delia were conversing what to make Keith’s full title. The things on the table at that moment were Unreliable Agent Keith or Scaredy-Cat Agent Keith.

“Girls, those aren’t nice,” Lance warned them quietly, then looking at Keith. He grinned. “Just take a shot, man. That’s all you gotta do.”

Keith hesitated. Something seemed wrong, though Lance assumed it was just that Keith didn’t know what he was doing and wasn’t sure how to act around kids. For a shut-in kind of guy like Keith, it made sense. Was Keith even a shut in, though? Lance couldn’t be completely sure, even though Keith’s personality fit. There _was_ that picture with the biker dude in Keith’s room.

There wasn’t even a second before something hit the center of Tsuyu’s chest perfectly and bounced off onto the floor. The bullets were all rubber-ended and made of foam, after all.

Both older girls gawked at him while Corinne smiled up at Keith and held her hands up, clapping for him to praise him.

Tsuyu and Lance shared concerned glances, though. Was Keith really lucky or had Keith held a gun before? Lance couldn’t be sure, and from the looks of it, neither could Tsuyu.

Tsuyu shrugged at Lance and turned around, grabbing a jar from the shelf and hugging it with a pouty expression that he continuously switched the direction of to look at all three girls. “These are my cookies! You’ll never get them!”

“You betrayed us! You promised us you wouldn’t turn into a monster again!” Olivie played along. “We were supposed to go back to our normal missions, simply retrieving the cookies in order to save the dying animals and make sure we stayed alive! Do you really want everyone to die?”

“I bet the emo here does,” Lance said, though he wasn’t loud enough under Tsuyu’s response. He knew that only Keith heard him and knew exactly what he meant. He didn’t even have to look at Keith to know. A smirk made its way onto his face.

Lance simply watched as the girls tried to negotiate with the stubborn Peanut Butter Monster. Then, they all watched silently as Corinne slowly walked up to Tsuyu and tugged on his pant leg. She turned slightly to show Lance her hands; she wanted him to say what she wanted to for her.

“If we can all share cookies, we can all be happy, but if only you have cookies, only you will be happy,” Lance slowly read aloud as her hands moved.

“That is the cutest thing I’ve ever heard,” Tsuyu gushed with an admiring grin. He then put on his pouty face and bent down on one knee, opening the jar and holding it out to Corinne. “Fine, I’ll share, but only one! Otherwise your mom will turn into the monster here.”

The girls all giggled and took a cookie, Tsuyu then standing up and taking one for himself. He offered one to Keith, though Keith shook his head and held his hands up as a declination. Lance, of course, didn’t pass up the chance to have one of Sera’s wondrous peanut butter cookies.

“Victory dance time!” Olivie exclaimed once she was done stuffing her mouth with her cookie. She hooked arms with Delia and spun her around, getting a glare out of Delia that she brushed off with a laugh. It was a good thing the kitchen had quite a bit of space

Tsuyu and Lance immediately played along, doing a stupid dance in mirroring motion of each other. That was yet another tradition. Corinne walked over to Lance and tugged on his pants, getting his attention.

_Dance?_

The question hit Lance as though an arrow had been shot through his heart. And this wasn’t some cupid arrow, but an arrow that was sharply pointed and meant to kill. Memories devoured the joy that had been surrounding him. A certain memory cut out everything. It was static, gray waves intertwined with threads of light, which was all he could see with how much pain he was in and how wrong things were going.

Lance brought himself back to the moment with a deep breath. He then sighed and shook his head down at her. “Sorry, Corinne, but Uncle Lance can’t dance with anyone or bad things will happen.”

 _Bad things?_ The worried and sad expression displayed on the little one’s face was heartbreaking. Lance felt horrible, but he knew he couldn’t give in.

“Maybe someday Uncle Lance can tell you a special story, but today isn’t the day for it,” Lance said apologetically. He then glanced over at Keith, who was watching them. Even though his shining glasses under the yellow lighting of the kitchen, he could see the fear in Keith’s eyes. Lance grinned evilly, looking back at Corinne. “Why don’t you go dance with Keith? He needs a partner to make a dance with.”

 _One-Shot Agent Keith and I can make a better dance than you and Uncle Tsuyu can!_ She stuck her tongue out playfully and then smiled.

“Ooh, One-Shot Agent Keith, I like it!” Lance beamed, patting her on the head. He then smiled in his own excited but competitive way, knowing he caught the others’ attention. “You making this a competition? Because you’re on. Dance competition, agent-pair style, Let’s see what pair can make the best dance in the next ten minutes.”

Lance watched as Corinne skipped over to Keith, taking a little cube out of one of the two pockets on her sundress that were barely noticeable and tapping it to pull up a screen. She quickly scribbled away on it and showed it to Keith. Keith nodded in agreement to whatever she’d written, though as she wrote something else, Keith looked up and gave Lance a concerned frown. Lance frowned himself and put a hand on the back of his neck, looking away guiltily to try and ease the pain pulling at his heart at least a bit. It didn’t help; in fact, it made it worse since he felt as though he was cutting people off for the millionth time. But what else was he supposed to do?

There were a few things that Lance still couldn’t tell him.


	6. My Priority Is Cats

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well after a long time of very slowly adding on to this chapter i finished it !!!  
> sooo writing's actually probably going to be slower than i would like it to be for the rest of my life since i have a l o t of medical issues and some concussions i got last year while i wasn't trying to write have really wore me down i guess?? so this actually isn't going to be able to update every week i'm so sorry  
> but this isn't going to stop  
> heck i even figured out that this is going to have 14 chapters total and this is only the first book ahaha  
> anyway enjoy this lovely chapter consisting of more pining and the cat

It had never occurred to Lance that he didn’t actually know Shiro’s name since Keith used it outside of the arena for him. On top of it being his Fusee name, it was also his nickname, apparently -- and for a logical reason.   
“Thank you Mr. Shirogane!” the last of the little ballet girls giggled while giving the massive, crouching-down-to-hug-her Shiro a big squeeze around his neck. She then scampered off to her mother, who ushered her out of the building.

Shiro stood up. He was wearing a leotard and tights, both shades of purple -- the leotard dark and the tights light. Lance knew he would not be able to wear anything like that without dying internally and stopping functioning.

The same went for Allura in terms of the name thing.

“Athalia, Lance and Keith are here,” Shiro called off to the side.

There was an open door on the other side of the studio, opened to a small office where someone, also in a leotard and tights but in hot pink and pale pink instead, was rummaging through boxes. The person straightened, putting whatever they had been holding down, and from what Lance could guess from the distance, this woman was at least as tall as Shiro. She turned on her heel and walked towards the three males in the studio, kicking the door to the little office closed behind her. The silvery white hair running down her back in a braid was unmistakable. Even if he’d barely caught a glimpse of her that night, Lance could tell it was her hair. It was just that unique. Her bright blue eyes were unique, too, with their hue that seemed to glow. Her cheeks were literally glowing pink in Lance’s eyes. him critiquing her makeup -- specifically how much blush she wore. Lance did not approve.

“Welcome, welcome! You two are having trouble with fusing, I hear,” Athalia greeted. It was definitely the same voice that rang throughout the arena over the screaming, yelling, and music. She walked over to Shiro, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure we’ll be able to help.” Her teeth were nearly perfect, which showed when she smiled in a friendly manner at the two boys.

It took Lance a moment of looking back and forth between her and Shiro, but his guess had been right. She was an inch or two taller than Shiro.

“Why don’t we sit and talk quickly? Fusing is based on bonding, after all,” Shiro offered up, taking a seat before letting the two boys answer. Athalia, of course, sat down with him.

Lance glanced over at Keith, who gave him a light half-shrug with one shoulder and took a seat. Lance exhaled deeply and sat down himself. They weren’t in kindergarten; why were they having something like circle-time?

“First things first, I think Shiro and I should mention that it took us a long time to get used to the whole fusing process,” Athalia comforted with her gentle smile. Despite her gentle expression and tone, something about her body structure and aura warned Lance that she could body-flip him in one second flat if she wanted to.

“It’s understandable for you two to have trouble fusing when you haven’t known each other for long and are both Unstables,” Shiro continued Athalia’s thought for her. “I’m sure you two are aware that Unstable and Stable are labels for personality, but I’m not quite sure that’s been put into context for the both of you. The labels and contract masters exist because of cases from the beginning of fusing where those who would have been labeled as Unstable fused and weren’t able to control themselves or their emotions. It was extremely dangerous since a few fusions were unstable enough they lost all limitation on their physical ability and control over their emotions, ripping a part of the city up.”

“That is the reason fusing is illegal,” Athalia finished the shared thought.

Lance and Keith blinked at Shiro and Athalia, neither of them saying anything. What they’d just been told was a lot to digest.

Lance narrowed his eyes at Shiro in a confused manner as a thought crossed his mind. “So you’re telling us the annoying thing we have to deal with whenever we fuse is there to make sure we don’t rip apart the city?”

Athalia and Shiro shared worried glances. Athalia then turned her gaze to Lance. “What do you mean by ‘the annoying thing’?”

“Our contract master isn’t exactly what you’d call…” Lance paused and shut his mouth, looking to the ceiling because of his loss of words.  _ What do I use to lightly describe what the asshole isn’t? _

“Easy to work with,” Keith jumped in.

Lance gave him a thankful, relieved glance, to which Keith returned a small grin.

“How so? Do you mind going into detail?” Shiro questioned.

“They’re a huge diva that’s always annoying us purposefully! They nag us about getting together! They’re almost just as bad as Katie when it comes to trying to get people to hook up!” Lance complained, flinging his arms around as he explained. He didn’t care if people thought it was weird how much he moved his arms; it was his way of expressing himself.

Shiro immediately started chuckling, though Athalia seemed confused, leaning to the side and mumbling to Shiro, “Who’s Katie?” She wasn’t very good at mumbling, Lance observed. He and Keith could clearly hear her.

“A friend of ours,” Shiro explained to Athalia with a wide grin. “She’s the one that brought Lance to the arena.”

“The biggest problem we have with our contract master is that it’s already hard enough trying to get along with each other. That makes it twice as hard to get along with the contract master,” Keith grumbled. Lance glanced over to see that Keith was sitting with his chin resting on his hand, his eyes slightly narrowed and his mouth formed into a frown.

It  _ totally  _ wasn’t cute in Lance’s eyes. Not one bit.

Okay, maybe a little.

“Well, then, I suggest you two bond further to find middle ground and learn to like your contract master. They’re a guardian for both of you,” Athalia said gently but gleefully. 

“How can we specifically help you two?” Shiro asked.

Lance glanced at Keith, who was glancing over at him too. Lance’s cheeks burned up and he quickly averted his eyes. Both of them stayed silent, Lance glancing over again to notice the pink tint on Keith’s cheeks and guilty look caused by his lowered eyes and frown. Lance took a deep breath and looked in Shiro and Athalia’s direction.

“We’re having trouble fusing without… uh… kissing,” Lance stammered. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously -- it was embarrassing to talk about.

“That means you must bond further and trust each other more! We have quite a few exercises for you two to try.” Athalia stood up and clapped her hands. “Let’s start with trust-falls.”

Shiro stood up as well, so Keith and Lance did as well. Lance looked at Athalia skeptically. “Trust falls? Aren't those for little kids on the playground?”

“In fusing it is best to learn to trust your partner, even in the simplest ways,” Shiro told them. “Now Lance, you fall first.”

Lance looked to Keith with pleading eyes. He really didn't want to do this. How could he trust the troll king to catch him?

Keith shrugged at his gaze and moved, placing himself behind Lance. Lance let out a sigh and closed his eyes, holding his arms out to his sides.  _ Three, two, one. _

He crashed onto the floor. Although it had pastel pink padding on it, it still hurt.

Keith bent over from the waist, putting his hands on his knees and hovering over Lance with a blank expression. “Sorry, I wasn't paying attention.”

“Emo Troll,” Lance grumbled. That was all he had to say to get his point across to Keith. He could see right through Keith’s blank expression. There was a tiny smirk pulling the sides of Keith’s mouth. He  _ knew _ Keith purposefully didn't catch him.

Keith held his hand out. “I promise to catch you this time.” Keith genuinely grinned.

Lance stared at Keith, then Keith’s hand, then back into Keith’s beautiful eyes. He sighed again, putting his hands around Keith's and letting Keith help him up. They retook their positions. Lance looked around quickly to find Athalia and Shiro standing off to the side, whispering to each other. An awkward feeling settled in Lance’s stomach, causing him to gulp.

He closed his eyes, held his arms out, and let himself fall backwards towards the ground again.

His sides were tenderly but firmly caught, then slowly hoisted back up. Lance opened his eyes and looked over his shoulder with a grin, meeting eyes with a grinning Keith.

“Alright, now switch,” Shiro instructed.

Lance simply freed himself of Keith’s now loose grip and walked around Keith, stationing himself behind Keith. Keith put his arms out and immediately fell while Lance wasn’t expecting it. Lance sucked in a quick breath while bending over to catch Keith as he plummeted towards the ground. He caught Keith just before hitting the ground, pulling him up with some trouble.

“Jeez, a little warning would have been nice,” Lance muttered as he hoisted Keith back up onto his feet.

Keith shrugged and grinned at Lance, giving Lance’s shoulder a little tap. “You still caught me. That’s what matters.”

Shiro suddenly called out, “We’re going to put a song on. We need you two to dance to it and try to fuse.”

A smirk found its way onto Lance’s face. They were going to show off the moves they’d learned. Lance glanced over and noticed that Keith didn’t look very thrilled, though when did he ever?

“It’s an upbeat song, don’t worry. It shouldn’t be too hard to move to,” Athalia reassured as she walked over to a bookshelf, which was next to the little office in the back of the room. Many trophies sat on the shelves instead of books, though on the top shelf, there was only a small, little pyramid; a modern-day radio system.

Lance looked over to Keith again, getting a shrug in response, and he shrugged back. He walked and turned so that his back was against Keith’s, and feeling Keith lower his head, Lance did as well. That was their starting position for today. The music started, and Athalia had been right about it being an upbeat song. In fact, it was something of a salsa, which completely confused Lance as to why Athalia had Spanish music, though he worked with it.

Keith obviously remembered the steps Lance had taught him since they moved into that, then jazzing it up a bit and making it more personalized and fit to the two of them. Lance would spin Keith, Keith would add other arm movements here and there, Lance would would move in a different pattern while Keith did something else with his feet, and so forth. Lance couldn’t help but smile, and he caught the wide grin on Keith’s face as he kept his eyes on Lance’s arms and feet to make sure he was moving along well enough, assumably.

Lance caught Keith’s eye and Keith nodded at him. Lance furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. Keith’s grin dropped and he rolled his eyes. Without any warning, Lance had his leg pulled up against Keith’s and an arm around his waist. It clicked in Lance’s brain what the nod had been for. He immediately entangled his fingers in Keith’s hair, though with how close that brought them, his skin began  _ burning _ .

He couldn’t handle this. No siree, no.

Lance was very thankful that there was only a second where the orange lights circled their feet and disappeared before Shiro called for them to stop. No kissing today, that was a relief.

“You two dance very nicely together, though some of your strengths in dancing don’t match well enough,” Athalia commented with a wide grin. “Lance, how about I work with you while Shiro works with Keith?”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Shiro beamed, putting an arm around his now-glowering younger brother.

That was when it hit Lance that Shiro and Keith had different last names, but this wasn’t the time for that.

Lance was immediately swept off his feet swiftly by a single leg from the front, causing him to drop forward onto the floor pads, which as he’d found out earlier weren’t comfortable to land on. Being swept off his feet was worse because it knocked his breath out of him, landing on his upper body and all. He lifted his head with a cough, finding a pensive Athalia looking down at him with one arm crossed over her chest and the other hand tapping her chin.

“Why did you do that?!” Lance heaved.

“Your upper body is too tight and your lower body is too relaxed. I shouldn’t have been able to throw you off balance that easily. It also wouldn’t have caused you this much issue with your lungs if you loosened up your abdomen,” Athalia explained.

Feedback on his dancing wasn’t exactly being tripped in Lance’s mind.

Lance rolled onto his back and tried to catch his breath, putting his hands over his face. The pads weren’t nice to feel, either. His cheeks felt like they’d just been rubbed with salt.

“Let’s work on stretching your upper body and strengthening your legs,” Athalia decided. Of course, she said it in as polite a manner as possible, but she  _ had _ just kicked Lance to the floor. Lance obviously had no say.

He let out a sigh. “And how are we going to do that exactly?”

“Simple! All we need to do is work on some specific stretches.” Athalia gestured for him to follow her as she headed towards one of the walls, where a bar was set up. “Stand with enough room between you and the bar for you to bend forward and hold the bar for balance,” Athalia instructed as they walked over, then putting a hand out and leaning against the bar while waiting for Lance to do as he was told. He did so, giving her something of an unhappy look, though she ignored it and went on. “Now, stick one leg out behind you and high as possible.

Lance felt like he was in five-year-old ballet class all over again. With a groan, he lifted his right leg and raised it was high as he could behind him. A hand was placed on him, supporting his ankle. At least, at first it was support, then the hand pushed on his ankle to raise his leg higher. Lance sucked in a breath despite the burning pain coursing through his leg at that moment.

“I’m going to let go and you need to hold this position,” Athalia informed, right as her hand slipped out from under him.

Lance bit his lip, wanting to start yelling about how stupid this was. It was horribly painful after all. How was torturing him going to improve his dancing? Despite the massive desire to drop his leg and march out right then, Lance did his best to keep his leg where Athalia had put it.

“Good, hold for just a few more seconds,” Athalia soothed.

It felt like eons to Lance, not seconds.

“Alright, now slowly lower your leg.”

His leg nearly collapsed. For that, he got a tap on the back -- and not a friendly one.

“If you let your leg fall that quickly, you’ll damage your muscles, not strengthen them,” Athalia warned.

He groaned in response, not completely caring.

“Other foot.”

Lance grumbled, cursing under his breath as his leg was pushed up yet again and expected to be held up there without any help.

Athalia hummed as he gave up a few seconds later and dropped his leg to the floor, feeling like he was going to keel over because of the burning sensation in his abdomen and hips. He turned around, leaning his lower arms on the balance bar and looking at the ceiling while wishing the pain away.

“How about a tree pose?” Athalia suggested, immediately reaching for his arms and pulling him off of the balance bar.

There were times Lance really hated the world, and this was one of them.

Before he knew out, he had been attempting to hold different yoga poses for an entire half hour. The only thing that kept him going through it was getting to watch Keith work on various forms of flexibility with his brother. Keith’s shirt stuck to him nicely, showing off his abs, and despite wearing sweatpants, his thick thighs were obvious. Keith was a sight, and Lance wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to stare without being questioned since Keith couldn’t see him and Athalia had her eyes closed for the majority of their stretches.

Despite enjoying what he was seeing, the entire time Lance couldn’t help but feel awful. He was skinny and tall with gentle facial features. Keith was muscular and averagely tall with sharp facial features. Keith could look intimidating, attractive, cute -- anything he wanted to look, really. Lance couldn’t see that for himself. That drove him to work twice as hard at what he was being told to do, at least.

It was exactly 5:30 p.m., Lance noticed from the clock over the door to the studio. He was in a cobra pose at the moment, which Athalia insisted would help relax his upper body since it meant he had to arch the entirety of his spine. He was facing the door, and Keith was working with Shiro nearby, now being forced to do what Athalia had forced Lance to do at the very beginning.

“You like what you see?” a whisper snapped him out of his Keith-trance.

He nearly face-planted into the padded floor.

He huffed while straightening his arms, looking over to find Athalia grinning at him malevolently while in the same position he was. It was more teasingly, but still, Lance didn’t need yet another person teasing him about Keith. But he also sucked at lying.

“Who wouldn’t?” Lance looked back over at Keith. “Keith’s so… perfect.”

Athalia laughed. “Now, don’t be like that. You’re both perfect in your own ways.”

Lance appreciated Athalia’s encouragement, though he wasn’t feeling it. Keith seemed so at ease, while Lance wanted to rip his insides out.

His chip buzzing in his pocket to notify him that someone was calling him didn’t help. His arms collapsed, placing his face in the pink pads again. He groaned while raising his head and pulling his chip out of his pocket and pressing it, causing a name and two options to pop up.  _ Nyma. Ignore; Accept.  _ Lance hit the accept button with a sigh. “I’m kind of busy right now, but what’s up?”

“Yeah, well, your cat’s dying, so whatever you’re busy with can wait,” an annoyed voice came through the screen.

Lance’s eyes nearly popped out of his head as he sat up at attention. “She’s  _ what? _ ”

 

Lance yelling  _ ‘She’s  _ **_what?_ ** _ ’ _ of course caught everyone’s attention, though Keith wouldn't have guessed Lance would start yelling back and forth with the girl on the phone about paying for surgery bills.

Apparently Keith hadn't hidden  _ all _ of his hair ties.

“So, altogether, the cost of the surgery and the medication will be about three thousand pallura.”

Although the animal hospital’s lobby was bustling, Keith picked her out right away. Her appearance stuck out from the old people or families with little children clustered there. With her shoulder-length, bleached blonde hair held out of her face by blue sunglasses pushed up on her head indoors, her shiny olive-toned skin, and her very casual outfit consisting of blue shorts, black flip-flops, a bunch of beige woven bracelets, and a white shirt reading  _ “my priority is cats” _ in black, Keith knew immediately who Nyma was.

Up close, he also noticed she had the same purple contacts he did -- which he’d been wearing around Lance since the encounter where Lance actually saw him in his glasses.

“Three thousand?! I don’t have that kind of money!” Lance screeched, pulling at his hair. “My poor angel, what are we going to do?!”

“My priority is cats,” Keith mumbled, reading Nyma’s shirt for the millionth time. How had he ended up in a place full of cat-lovers?

Keith looked up to find Nyma’s serious gaze centered on him, though it quickly turned to Lance as she jutted her hip out, putting a hand on it, and gestured at Keith with her hand. “Why is he here?”

Lance froze. As did Keith. What were they supposed to tell her? Did she know about fusing? Or was she a normee who followed the law? Keith looked to Lance, assuming he was going to take the lead; this was his ‘boss’ in volunteering, after all.

Lance chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. “We were just… hanging out when you called.”

Nyma raised an eyebrow, looking between Lance and Keith a few times before smirking at Lance.

Lance gave her a stern look. “No, Nyma, it’s not what you think.”

Nyma turned to Keith with a deadly expression. “Hurt this idiot and I will tie you to a tree and leave you there to rot. Got it?”

Keith didn’t like being threatened. His expression dropped from blank to a frown with narrowed eyes and he crossed his arms. “Tie me to a tree, huh? I’d like to see you try.”

Lance smacked a hand on Keith’s chest and laughed nervously. “Sorry, Nyma, he’s very out of sorts right now.”

Keith gave Lance a sour look. He didn’t appreciate being smacked and then told to be ‘out of sorts’ when he wasn’t. He’d been challenged, how was he supposed to let that slide?

Except Lance had a hand on his chest, so he guessed it was okay to let it go.

Nyma sighed. “If neither of us can pay for it, we’re going to have to put her down.”

That phrase caused Keith’s heart to stop. An awkward silence settled, Keith staring off into space while Lance was running a hand through his hair an Nyma looked solemn. It felt as though something had put chains around Keith’s heart and tightened them progressively as the awkward silence continued. Everything began booming in his ears, despite the fact that everyone in the lobby was quite respectful about their volume. After a few more tense seconds, Lance let out a huff, but before he could say anything, Keith couldn’t take it anymore.

“I’ll adopt her.”

Nyma and Lance both gawked at him. “ _ What?! _ ”

Nyma then turned to question Lance, exclaiming, “Isn't this the guy you were complaining about that hated cats?”

“I don't know what's going on in his head! Ask him, not me!” Lance exclaimed in response.

Keith just continued staring off into space. He’d surprised himself, too. Though, it was understandable that he wasn’t going to let the cat be put down -- especially not because he accidentally left a hair tie lying around. Besides, he lived alone, so it wouldn’t be overwhelming to add a cat to his apartment.

“I don’t want her put down,” Keith sighed, getting Nyma’s and Lance’s attention. “She’s such a sweetheart, and I didn’t look closely enough to hide all my hair ties. It’s my fault, so I should take responsibility.”

Lance gasped with a smile, Keith suddenly having the air squeezed out of him by a squealing Lance. “I’m so proud of you! You’re warming up to cats!”

Keith rolled his eyes and groaned, “Only this one.”

“I’ll go grab an adoption paper from the front desk,” Nyma said with the wave of her hand, walking away without any warning.

Lance rubbed his cheek on Keith’s face in excited endearment, though it caused Keith’s cheeks to warm up. Of course, Lance’s continuous squealing also annoyed him, as usual.“You’re actually adopting! What are you going to name her?”

It hadn’t even crossed Keith’s mind that he had to name her. So, he blurted the first thing that came to mind.

“Angel…?”

Lance pulled away and put his hands to his chest, tearing up with a tremendous grin. “You’re taking my nickname for her! This is so sweet!” He drew out the ‘ee’ in sweet with yet another squeal.

Keith’s ears were starting to ring because of all of Lance’s squealing. He rolled his eyes but couldn’t help but grin at the idiotic display Lance was giving.

Two papers were slapped onto Keith’s shoulder, shocking him into a small jump as he turned his head to find Nyma smirking at him while holding the papers on his shoulder. “You just need to fill these two out, then the doctor will be out to talk to you about the paperwork for the surgery.”   
A hand then tightly gripped Keith’s elbow and pulled him over to the chairs along the wall, sitting him down before Lance plopped himself down beside him. Keith rolled his eyes yet again and opened his mouth to tell Lance to just ask him to sit down next time, though before he could say that, Lance rummaged through his jean pockets and pulled out a pen, holding it out to Keith. Keith shut his mouth and allowed one side of his mouth to tug up, taking the pen from him and beginning to fill out the forms.

It took an hour before the doctor came into the lobby to find them. By that point, Keith had listened to Lance ramble about how to take proper care of a cat and figuring out for himself how many times a week he could barge into Keith’s house to supposedly help with taking care of Angel while Nyma simply sat on the other side of Lance with her nose in her chip screen, playing some hidden object game, for a straight hour. The doctor didn’t even do much. He simply shook hands with Keith, handed him more forms to fill out, and disappeared.

Keith sighed, clicking the pen to start writing again. The forms were for health insurance for Angel and a bill for the surgery they had to operate today.

“I can help with some payments,” Lance muttered guiltily, though it was loud enough for Keith to hear. He glanced at Lance, who was rubbing the back of his neck while slouching in his chair and looking down at his knees. “I pretty much forced her onto you, so it’s only right if I pay for something, too…”

Keith grinned at him. He guessed Lance could be pretty cute when he was actually being mature. Something popped into Keith’s mind. “You could help me choose out what I’m going to need to take care of her. It’s only 7:30, so we should have enough time to go get some supplies.”

Lance’s entire being lit up, a sparkling smile being shot Keith’s way. “Deal, I’ll pay for all the supplies and any to come for the next few months.”

Keith tilted his head back, looking at the ceiling in order to hide his blush as he chuckled slightly. “Flattering. It’s a deal.”

“Wait, was that sarcasm? It didn’t sound like sarcasm, but wow, you saying something is flattering? Are you okay? Are you sick? Do you need to go home?” Lance rambled.

Keith lowered his head, rolling his eyes as his grin dropped into a blank expression. “Lance, I’m fine.”

“Here she is!” a new voice chimed, directing the boys’ attention to a nurse walking towards them. She was carrying a pet carriage, which Angel was pressing her face against while attempting to free herself.

The carriage containing Angel was placed in Keith’s lap. Keith stuck a finger into the cage, which Angel immediately rubbed against. She then meowed at him with wide eyes, assumably hoping he’d open the cage.

“You can have the cage since you payed so much to us today. Any questions before we send you off?” the nurse asked.

Keith shook his head and carefully wrapped his hand around the handle on top of the carrier. He stood up. “Thank you.” He began walking away, knowing Lance would immediately follow him. After all, they’d carpooled in Lance’s car since Keith’s apartment was on the way from Lance’s house to the dance studio.

Lance immediately began squealing again after waving goodbye to Nyma as they walked out to the car. They got in, Keith situating the carrier on the floor in between his feet.

“She’s super good, you know. Take her out and hold her! She won’t try to jump away or scratch you,” Lance informed as he started the car. He then held his hands out to Keith. “I’ll hold her carrier in my lap while you take her out.”

Keith grinned at him quickly before doing as Lance had said. He handed the carrier over and opened the door once Lance had stabilized it in his lap, carefully pulling the fluff ball out. Despite her apparent size, she weighed nothing like what would be guessed for her because of how fluffy she was.

“She’s so fluffy. She can’t be fully a maine coon,” Keith commented as he placed the blinking puffball in his lap. Angel immediately got comfortable in his lap and put her head down in the crease where Keith’s legs met.

“She probably not, but who cares -- wait, why do  _ you _ know that?!” Lance screeched.

Surprisingly, Angel didn’t even move her tail because of Lance’s outburst. Keith simply shrugged. “I did some research on cats since you forced one into my apartment over the weekend.”

Lance narrowed his eyes with a huff. He turned to slip the carrier into the back of the car and then began reversing out of the parking spot. “Sounds fishy coming from the Emo Troll.”

Keith rolled his eyes for the hundredth time in just the last hour, he swore. “I wouldn’t trust Prince Idiot’s judgement.”

Lance huffed, but that was all, then a silence fell. Keith occupied himself by petting Angel, embracing the few moments he knew he had of silence.

Keith counted six seconds before Lance said anything else.

“Why do you and Shiro have different last names? What’s Shiro’s first name anyway?”

Keith’s heart stopped. Instead of sinking in his chest as it did earlier due to hearing the option of putting Angel down, his heart shattered into a thousand sharp pieces. Collecting himself before Lance caught onto anything, Keith sighed. “We have different moms, but our dad is the same. Shiro’s first name is Takashi,” he answered impassively.

Lance hummed in response. “Gotcha. How long have you two lived together for?”

“My entire life,” Keith croaked. Something was building in his throat as he became more nervous and attempted to shove it all to the back of his mind, where it was normally kept. He technically wasn’t lying, though he surely wasn’t ready to tell the whole truth.

“Aw, so you two are just like full siblings! That must be nice!” Lance chimed.

Keith fell silent. Lance filled the void Keith wasn’t speaking into by turning on the radio and humming along to the popular music now surrounding them. Although the music was kept pretty quiet compared to, say, how loud he knew Shiro liked it, it felt as though the music was blaring and Lance’s humming was a buzz inside his ears. His heart was pounding rapidly, its broken edges digging into his rib cage while trying to free itself as memories from everything after waking up in the hospital, and even before, flooded into his thoughts and blocked out anything and everything else.

Keith definitely wasn’t ready.

Before Keith knew it, Lance parked them in front of a pet store.

“Here we are! Let’s bring Angel in with us!” Lance opened his door while grinning at Keith.

Keith gave a nod with half-grin in return, though the aching in his heart was still bothering him. He gently picked Angel up and cradled her in his arms, carefully climbing out of the car with her. He and Lance made their way to the automatic doors. They opened to reveal a very bright store, filled with shelves of various pet supplies, toys, tools, and food. The store had a few customers in it, mainly looking at things with their dogs and cats themselves or looking at the birds, fish, and puppies for sale. Keith already hated the store. Why anyone would willingly be here at this time of day, Keith didn’t know.

“Alright, first things first,” Lance grabbed a cart and led the way, “water and food bowls, and of course, the food.”

Keith simply followed the zipping Lance to the back of the store, where all the bowls and food were stocked. Lance immediately resulted to investigating each and every possible bowl, muttering to himself as he picked each up and put it back. Keith shifted Angel so that she was resting her front paws on his shoulder and her weight was supported by one arm. That way, he could pet her and feel her purring against his shoulder and hear it right in his ear as she continuously rubbed her face against his hair. Keith supposed he could get used to this.

“This is the one!” Lance blurted, shoving a purple bowl in Keith’s face. The bowl had a pair of angel wings detailed on one side.

Keith rolled his eyes as Lance dramatically sacrificed the bowl to the depths of the shopping cart. “Whatever you say, Lance.”

“She should have a silver water bowl,” Lance decided as well, picking up another bowl and dropping it in. He then stuck his finger in the air and turned the cart with one hand. “Onto food!”

Keith couldn’t help but grin a bit as he followed Lance, who was now marching, to the bagged and canned food section.   
“She’ll need both dry and wet food. Wet food should be served on little plates,” Lance told Keith as he stepped away from the cart and bent down to inspect all the available dry cat food.

The trip was proving to be quite boring for Keith. At least he had Angel to cuddle while waiting for Lance’s dramatic supply shop to be over.

Lance flung a bag of dry food into the cart and then picked up at least seven tins of wet cat food, placing them in a tower into the cart.

Keith raised an eyebrow. “You sure that’s going to stay?”

“Don’t doubt me,” Lance chastised in a conceited manner.

Keith didn’t even bother rolling his eyes this time. “That’s a hard thing to do.”

Lance looked confused as he wheeled the cart away from the food section with Keith at his side. “That’s a hard thing to do, like, it’s hard to doubt me? Or it’s hard to  _ not _ doubt me?”

“Second one, idiot,” Keith responded blankly.

Lance pouted and muttered something under his breath before stopping in front of a shelve of toys. Some were big, some were small, some lit up or made noises, some were stretchy -- Keith guessed you could find any toy you wanted for your pet in the enormous section. Lance picked one up. It was a little, round, cartoon cow. He squeezed it to find that it was a squeaker, also causing Angel’s head to perk up and whip around as well as her tail to start whipping. He smiled and held it up to Angel beside Keith’s shoulder and squeezed it. Angel immediately began batting at it and attempting to get it into her mouth. Both Lance and Keith chuckled.

“I guess that one is a yes,” Lance laughed, rubbing behind Angel’s ears as he dropped the toy into the cart.

“I guess so,” Keith agreed, grinning at Lance.

Lance also grabbed some balls made of scrunchy material that made a crinkling noise when you moved them in your hand, as well as some soft toy mice.   
“Now onto litter!”

The majority of the trip was simply going to be Keith following Lance, he could tell.

“A purple litter box to match her purple food bowl,” Lance commented as he placed a litter box into the cart.

Keith’s grin fell into a blank expression again as Lance then read every label on all the possible litters to choose from.

“Are you allergic to scents?” Lance questioned.

Keith scrunched his nose. “I’d prefer having one that doesn’t have a scent. Are there just plain wheat ones that absorb smell?”

Lance shrugged, picking a box up. “Here you go.” He placed it into the cart.

There was a pause, Keith looking around at the other things the store had for cats. There were scratch mats, scratch towers, beds, and even mini chairs. Keith walked over and picked up a bed with his free hand, placing it on top of the shelf so that he could feel the inside of it.

“Keith?”

“Soft,” Keith muttered as he ran his hand across the cushioning built in. He flung it over his shoulder, knowing Lance had pulled up behind him. “This, too.”

Lance smiled. “You’re starting to catch on.” He stepped around the cart to inspect the display of scratch towers and mats next to the beds. He patted the top of one of the towers, looking to Keith. “How about this?”

Keith grinned with a nod.

“Her name fits her perfectly since she sure is getting the treatment of an angel in heaven,” Lance joked as he arranged everything inside the cart in order for the tower to fit.

“Do you think we’re set for now?” Keith asked, his arm getting tired of carrying the ball of fluff leaning into his shoulder.

Lance nodded with a skeptical face. “I think so. Only thing I can think of that we haven’t picked up is a box to hide all your hair ties in.”

Keith waved his hand. “Got that covered.”

“Alright, then let’s go and set everything up!” Lance zipped away again, this time to the cashiers at the front of the store.

Before long, they’d packed everything into the back seats of Lance’s car and were heading off towards Keith’s apartment building, Angel fast asleep in Keith’s lap again. Keith didn’t know what to say so he simply listened to Lance’s humming the entire ride. Lance had a very sweet voice; it was soothing to listen to. Keith’s heart dropped when Lance pulled into a free spot in front of the apartment building since that meant Keith couldn’t listen any longer.

“You take the bags and Angel in her carrier and I’ll take the tower in,” Lance instructed, getting out and opening the back doors of the car.

Keith followed, bringing Angel with him and placing her in her carrier. His arms felt like they wanted to fall off. Although Angel in her carrier wasn’t too heavy, the bags he was dragging with him up into the apartment were. At least Lance was taking the tower for him.

“The tower’s going next to the window. She’s gonna love that,” Lance declared, walking past the couch and setting the tower down, then moving it bit by bit until he deemed it in the perfect spot.

Keith put Angel down and opened the carrier. She shot out of it like a bullet, immediately running to the tower and climbing up it, perching herself on the top and turning her back to Keith as she looked out the window and whipped her tail around. Lance chuckled, looking at Keith.

Keith simply grinned without saying anything, then rummaging through the bags to set up the rest of Angel’s bowls and bed in the kitchen and living room, as well as finding shelves for the toys and food to go on so he’d know where everything was.

“I should get going -- it’s already past 8, and the girls are sleeping over,” Lance said, walking up to Keith as he was placing the squeaking cow next to his radio. “Also, I need to eat.”

Keith turned. His grin hadn’t faded. “Alright. See you next weekend?”

Lance smiled. “Yep. Maybe the training from today will help.” Lance’s smile dropped suddenly, him biting his bottom lip. Keith narrowed his eyes at him in confusion, though before he could do anything, Lance leaned in and gave Keith a kiss on the cheek. He pulled away with a wide smile, his cheeks bright red. “Let’s do this,” he stammered in a hushed voice before turning and rushing out of the apartment before Keith could say anything again.

Keith stood there, staring at his door, flabbergasted. His heart and breathing stopped for a moment.

Lance had  _ kissed _ him. Not for fusing. For some reason, that aggravated him.

Keith shook his head and brushed it off, quickly making a sandwich to angrily munch on and then going to shower before sleeping. It’d been a tiring day, and there was nothing wrong with going to bed to feel fully rested the next day.

Though, of course, all he could think about for the rest of the time he was awake was stupid Lance doing stupid things like stupidly kissing his cheek without meaning to fuse and how stupid it was that Keith was falling for the asshole of a stupid prince, Lance.


	7. Definitely The Mullet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY CHAPTER 7 IS HERE  
> i'm not sure why but everytime i'm writing 52's dialogue i imagine her speaking in a british accent  
> if anyone’s really confused about 76’s appearance, just watch the dance for titanium from just dance 2017  
> (yes i actually took inspiration from that, it’s beautiful)  
> and oops i should've mentioned before there would be lesbian oc's but ya know whatevs  
> why i’m obsessed with making them wear clothing i find fun/funny i’m not sure of but hey, extra story bits  
> also ‘keith’s an asshole’ and ‘fashionista lance’ are being added as tags as well as lance and keith's sexualities because wow i actually forget to add those when first adding tags  
> i’ve gotten fanart for this and i’m so?? honoured??? oh my god???? two of my good friends have drawn fanart, i’ll put links in the end notes for anyone who wants to check it out  
> we’re finally getting to the start of the actual romance and the angst y'all (i'm nervous it's done horrible IM SORRY IF IT IS)  
> (AND OF COURSE SORRY FOR ANY MISTAKES I MISSED)

_They were lucky it was a free mods night, meaning all the specimens were free to roam around the building, snack in the cafeteria and watch a movie on an old projector, play with various pieces of sports equipment in the multiple gyms, do activities at various stands set up in random sectors by the security guards, or visit other specimens. It was everyone’s favorite night of the week._

_“Are we sure she’s even going to be awake? She was barely awake last time! Her eyes kept fluttering open and shut, open and shut, open and--”_

_“Okay, we get it. She should be up though,” K growled through gritted teeth, shutting 93 up as they casually made their way through a busy sector._

_This specific sector had many pathways in it, all intertwined and leading to different floors with a glass dome above them, showing the stars. Of course, the glass was coated with resistant substances so that any specimens that could fly or jump very high couldn’t break through. In here, K, 52, and 93 didn’t stand out. At least, not really. K stood out somewhat because of his short height and the snarl on his pale face._

_“Aw, is someone still upset over his failure last night?” 52 jutted out her bottom lip with wide eyes, creating a pitying face, though K very well knew it was painted over sarcasm._

_“No, of course not,” K grumbled, darting glaring eyes at her over his shoulder. “Has it slipped your mind that I had a liquified dosage stabbed into my arm? I’ve felt its effects working all day.”_

_K tuned 52 and 93 out as they contemplated whether he was going to turn into a normal-sized human or not and whether his intelligence was going to be taken away._

_“Ooh! Maybe he’ll become less serious and will do barrel rolls down the hallways with us!” 93 suddenly exclaimed._

_“That’s very unsanitary, 93,” 52 scolded, flipping her hair._

_K was thankful that they’d finally reached the door they’d been looking for._

_“Don’t cause any trouble in there, you three,” a guard walking by warned._

_K narrowed his eyes at the guard’s back while 93 excitedly pushed the door open and sprinted in, practically screaming, “76! 76! 76! You awake?”_

_K and 52 followed her into the odd room. It was black, with many magenta lights running through the floor and walls in gear patterns. That, and the floating ball in the middle of the room, was the only lighting. The floating ball was massive and mainly white, with some gray lines and circles where the lines rounded to meet. Inside, there was a being with white skin and icy blue hair wearing a very light silver body suit -- with some metal plates of pink, placed on the fronts of the sections of her legs, across the neckline, and at the waist and crotch. The being was floating in the middle of the ball, a bunch of magenta tubes connected to her and slowly wavering within the seemingly empty space within. The being was in a balled position itself._

_The being unraveled, stretching its arms and opening its mouth in a yawn. “I am now,” the being said while yawning, its calm and gentle voice seemingly muted through the plastic ball holding it hostage._

_“Come out here then, silly!” 93 beamed, excitedly placing her hands on the ball and placing her face against it to smile at the being._

_The being smiled back and fully unraveled, showing off its curves -- making it obvious it was a female of sorts. “Alright, stand back then.”_

_93 did so as the being floated to one of the gray circles lining the ball. It suddenly began beeping as the tubes pulled away from her and her outfit changing with sparks flying all around it. It turned gray-blue, with new, navy blue metal plates appearing, making the outline of the space between her ribs, a larger plate at the waist, on the outside of her arms, and circular plates for her kneecaps and elbows. Her eyes were also covered by a new plate that went all the way around her head in a strip, just covering her eyes. Her feet landed on the black floor, floating pieces of the dome now designing the ceiling._

_“76!” 93 nearly screeched as she tackled the armored being._

_76 let out a light laugh. “It’s nice to see you again, too, 93.” She gave 93 a peck on the cheek._

_52 scoffed in a disgusted manner. “Lovebirds, we exist, too.”_

_“Sorry, sorry, sorry; am I not allowed to be excited to see my baby for the first time in a_ **_week?_ ** _” 93 huffed._

_K huffed in return. “Your baby? More like her baby. You do this every week.”_

_76 chuckled again, running a hand through 93’s hair as she continued to cling to 76. “Let’s all settle down. How are you all doing?”_

_52 knocked the back of K’s head with the roll of her fist so that knuckles weren’t digging into his head. It was her endearing yet condescending playfulness. “This idiot here attempted to escape again. Of course, we went along, but it ended much, much worse than any of the others.”_

_“K, why would you do that?” 76 sighed._

_K let out another huff, crossing his arms and turning his head away with a pout while refusing to respond._

_“You really need to stop spitting out your pills,” 76 scolded gently._

_K guiltily glanced over to see her then grinning brightly as 93 began marveling over her blue armor._

_“It matches your hair perfectly! Does it do anything new? How’d the implanting process go?” 93 rambled. In K’s opinion, everything that came out of 93’s way too excitable mouth was rambling._

_76 hummed. “Well, the implanting went very well with no pain this time, and it has some new features. It glows in the dark and this thing,” she tapped the plate that went over her eyes, “protects my eyes more thoroughly while giving me more clear vision. I was also given weaponry to train with.”_

_93 sucked in a massive gasp. “Can I try some of your weapons out? Can I, can I, can I?”_

_76 grinned widely, turning on her heel and somehow smoothly pulling her arm from 93’s grasp while walking away. She went to the back wall and pressed her hand to it, her touch creating strings of light in the wall as the wall processed her hand’s shape. The wall then beeped, obviously a signal for her to pull her hand away since she did, and then parted in the middle -- retreating like curtains to reveal a wall of many batons of various sizes made of the same metal as the plates on 76’s suit._

_93 sucked in yet another ginormous breath as 76 turned to face her and gestured freely to the wall with one hand, giving 93 permission. She placed her hands on her hips casually as she watched 93 race to the wall and begin picking out batons to press the buttons on, activating all sorts of guns and handy tools to transform out of the batons._

_“Would it be alright if I had a go at a few of these?” 52 asked as she lazily walked up to the wall, skimming over the arrangement of hidden weapons in front of her._

_76 nodded. “Of course.”_

_K grunted at 52’s and 93’s interest in the weapons. K was much more interested in getting his entire body to stop aching and getting out of the damn facility._

_“It would help you if you remembered you’re going to be leaving here soon,” 76 suddenly spoke up. K picked it up and knew it was towards him -- not only because the other two specimens were busy playing around with dangerous weapons the walls simply absorbed the bullets or shock from, but because he was also aware the others had no hope of leaving the facility as he did. His heart sunk at the thought._

_K grumbled, “Yeah, so?”_

_“You’re going to be living with a poor thirteen-year-old boy; Takashi, was it? He surely won’t want a little brother who attempts to escape from everything and allows his mind to be corrupted by spitting out his control pills.” 76 spoke softly to make sure only K could hear her. It was a very touchy subject to the four of them, which he was sure 76 was purposefully being quiet about to not bring down the others._

_K’s shoulders slumped. He knew 76 was right. He couldn’t find it in himself to respond, so he stared at his feet._

_“Please, be kind to that boy,” 76 pleaded nearly in a whisper. “He just lost his mother and his half-brother, keep in mind.”_

_There was a moment of silence between the two of them as they watched 52 and 93 have a mock battle, purposefully missing each other and allowing the walls to take the damage and automatically repair themselves. Either that, or 52 and 93 just sucked. It was a training room, after all._

_K finally sucked in a breath that actually felt as though it filled his lungs, which he hadn’t felt when 76 had started talking to him. “I’ll try,” he groaned slowly._

_76 sighed, saying one last thing before stepping forward to have fun with the other girls._

_“I'm not like you. You’re a specimen being unleashed into the world in order to comfort a grieving boy. I'm simply built to destroy.”_

_With that, K’s heart seemed to die; any light in it dimmed, any glass in it shattered, any gears in it stopped. K knew this wasn’t right._

_But, he also knew he couldn’t do anything to change the fate that had already been set for each of the four of them._

_“Whoa! K, check this out! This one makes solid substances liquify but not fully, so they become gel!” 52 called excitedly, shooting a gun at a wall of barrels made of metal, there for practice with the weapons. The gun shot its purple bullets with lots of force so they could go fast and far, though it was a tiny gun. “It’s so light and easy to use, too! Ha, this could easily destroy enemies.”_

_“That’s what it’s for,” 76 reminded gently, taking two other guns and shooting them, one after the other. The first one’s bullet hit a barrel and burst into a bunch of blue-gray gas while the second bullet hit the same barrel and lit the gas on fire. “Everything here is meant to be used in the next war, which we all know will be soon.”_ _  
_ _Everyone grew dim, lowing the weapons they had in their hands and refusing to look at each other._

_93 sighed lightly. “Do you think the counsels will ever be able to get along?”_

_“That’d take a miracle. Humans don’t share,” K growled at 93._

_“Well, could they at least fix the earth, then, instead of using it for imprisonment?” 93 exclaimed, waving her arms around. She accidentally pulled the trigger on her gun, shooting a bullet that ricocheted off the walls continuously._

_All of them instantaneously fell to the floor, 93 being the only that had let out a squeak in fear. The bullet’s momentum finally wore off and it rolled to the ground. Everyone lifted their heads, and 93 began inching towards it in curiosity._

_“It’s a ball? Just a metal ball?” 93 questioned._

_“A normal bullet?” 52 droned, condescending 93._

_“No,” 76 raced to 93 and batted her hands away from reaching out to the bullet. She picked it up, took the gun from 93, and stood up. “It pierces organic flesh and deteriorates it. It doesn’t just work like a bullet; it tears apart the skin and flesh so all that’s left within seconds is some vessels, organs, and bones.”_

_“Why would they make that?” 93 squeaked. She was on the verge of tears._

_“Because humans are evil. All they’re made up of is a layer of skin to hide the seven deadly sins boiling inside them.” 76’s tone was quite intimidating with how low, serious, and quiet it was._

_“But--” 93 spoke up, trying again._

_“Don’t you get it?!” 76 boomed, gritting her teeth and nearly crying herself. 93 lost all color in her face. “There’s no way to get them to stop the wars. There’s no way to get them to stop destroying the planet. There’s no way to get them to stop making_ **_us!_ ** _We’re monsters! Without pills every twelve or twenty-four hours, your brains lose sanity! Without any protective armor, I’m still invincible! There’s no way to get them to stop anything!”_

_A silence fell._

_All K could do was watch as 76 put the weapons back in their places, reseal the wall of practicing barrels, and climbed back into her globe. That was her way of telling them to leave. And so they did. Though, they did hear one thing out of her before the door closed behind the other three._

_“I hate this world.”_

 

“Kaltenecker. The cow’s Kaltenecker.”

“Lance, not helpful.”

“You have to give each toy a name! Come on!” Lance urged.

Of all the times Keith had talked to Lance, this could very well be the worst. It also was possibly the worst phone call he’d ever had.

Keith sighed as he crouched down in front of the cat tower, in which Angel was hiding in the cave of. He regretted buying a cat tower with a free hiding place. He squeezed the cow toy again in an attempt to draw her out with its supposedly captivating noise.

“If she’s been hiding the entire evening, she obviously needs her toys named!” Lance urged yet again.

“Lance, giving the damn thing a name won’t change the fact that she’s hiding from me and I don’t know why,” Keith grumbled, eyeing the phone call with Lance, who was currently spinning in a chair Keith knew wasn’t his. Keith had no idea where Lance was at the moment.

“Are you sure she’s awake?” Lance questioned, rubbing his chin with narrowed eyes. Of course, Lance’s eyes weren’t focused on anything. He was spinning around, after all.

Keith peered into the tower’s cave again to find wide pupils lined by green staring back at him. Keith gulped down the lump in his throat. “Yep.”

Lance hummed pensively before saying anything more. “Maybe it’s the mullet.”

Keith could feel the smirk on Lance’s face in his words. He didn’t like it. “I called you for help, not for more of your dumb theories.”

“Well, maybe if you tried to take better care of your hair and look less like a troll, you’d be more attractive to the woman you’ve invited into your house,” Lance continued harassing him.

Keith groaned, muttering, “You know I’m gay,” as he placed the cow, deemed Kaltenecker by Lance, down on the floor and reached into the cat tower’s cave. He gently rubbed the sides of Angel’s face, getting her to soften up as Lance began rambling about how no one completely leans towards one sex or the other. Keith soon enough was able to wrap his hands around Angel’s sides and pull her out of the cave, then sitting up and placing her on her natural perch -- his shoulder.

She immediately began gnawing at the ends of his hair, lightly nipping the back of his neck in the process.

“Definitely the mullet,” Lance triumphantly declared as Keith huffed out a pained breath.

Keith pulled Angel away from his shoulder, instead cradling her in his arms while glaring at Lance. “There’s nothing wrong with my mullet.”

“Nothing except for the fact that you're two centuries too late,” Lance retaliated happily, quite obviously enjoying himself.

Keith rolled his eyes, rubbing Angel’s stomach and feeling her purrs tremor through her rib cage into the tips of his fingers. It was quite a relaxing, heart-warming feeling, putting a grin on Keith’s face as he and Angel exchanged blinks. He’d read online that blinking was a sign of peace and care, and so far that had proven correct.

“She’s such a good fit for you,” Lance sighed in a relieved, cheerful manner. “I'm glad she found such a good owner.”

Keith processed what Lance had said.

_“I’m glad she found such a good owner.”_

Keith’s face nearly turned into a mushy tomato due to how hot and red it became. He didn't dare glance up at the screen during the awkward silence that settled between them, Lance assumably scolding himself for complementing Keith. Keith wouldn't be surprised. He didn't hear much but banter from the drama prince, to be fair.

Lance cleared his throat. “So, the cow is Kaltenecker,” Lance shakily clarified, changing the subject; Keith was thankful. “Onto the mice…” Lance’s voice died out quickly as he shut his mouth and thought.

Keith finally looked up since his embarrassed demeanor had turned into a disappointed one. “We’re naming the mice, too?”

Lance scoffed, offended.

What was new? Nothing.

“Of course we’re naming them, too! They deserve to be named equally as much as Kaltenecker does!” Lance’s face then flushed, him slumping in his chair. “Just give me a minute.”

Keith did, focusing on Angel’s purring in the meantime.

“The purple one is Kerberos, the brown one is Balmera, and the blue one is Arus,” Lance decided with a nod once he shut his mouth.

Keith knit his eyebrows while staring at Lance, confused and questioning. “Why though?”

“They're a moon and two planets with the colors of the mice,” Lance stated as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Duh.”

“Wow, I had no idea the prince of the idiots actually knows something about a subject as vast and complicated as astrology,” Keith teasingly but monotonically fought back.

Lance was about to say something, though he was interrupted by nature and a screeching cat.

Keith hushed Angel and pet her head rather than just rubbing her stomach, though she was too busy growling while staring back at the window upside down. “You don’t like thunderstorms, do you?”

“I don’t either,” Lance muttered, loudly enough for Keith to hear. He assumed it was an accident, so he left it to hang in the air as he continued trying to get Angel in a more relaxed state.

It wasn’t working.

Thunder boomed again and Angel growled more loudly, squirming in Keith’s arms. He loosened his grip on her and she sprinted away, jumping out of his arms and trotting over to the tower to perch herself on top of it while continuing to growl at the weather and batting at the window as rain began hitting it.

“I’m not cut out for this,” Keith sighed as he stood up, then walking off to the kitchen to grab a drink.

“Keith, don’t be like that! Pets are hard to take care of and the transition can be overwhelming; don’t beat yourself up about any of it! Angel will be back to her cuddly self as soon as she gets used to your apartment while I’m not there,” Lance attempted to reassure while Keith plopped down onto the couch with one of the blue energy drinks.

“Are you claiming to be a cat-whisperer, or something like that?” Keith sarcastically grumbled, taking a gulp of the drink as Lance spoke up.

“Maybe I am.” Lance crossed his arms defiantly.

Keith simply rolled his eyes, chugging his drink. He set the empty bottle down on the coffee table and found Lance looking down with a lost expression. The atmosphere became awkward, even though they weren’t physically with each other.

“Hey, you okay?” Even if Keith wanted to be gentle, he couldn’t. He asked as blatantly as he always did.

“Oh, uh, yeah, I-I’m fine, um,” Lance stammered, rubbing the back of his neck before shutting his mouth and swallowing before clearing his throat. He didn’t look up. “That photo. I-In your room. Who… who was that?”

Keith’s heart twisted in a knot. He leaned his head back, memories flooding like acid into his head as he blocked light from his eyes using his hand. He sighed. “His name is Flinn.”

“Flinn?”

“Yeah.”

Keith refused to say anything more. He didn’t want to remember anything more than his name. Even if he wouldn’t give up their first picture together, he wasn’t keen on the memory of _Flinn_.

Lance cleared his throat again. “Rough end?” he croaked, as though he were losing his voice. Keith uncovered his face and lifted his head to find Lance grinning sympathetically, looking at the screen again.

Keith took a breath, allowing Lance’s supportive expression ease him. He nodded. “Very.”

An awkward silence fell between the two, Lance looking away again. Keith stared at his empty bottle. He didn’t like the awkwardness but he also didn’t know what to say.

“In any case,” Lance spoke up, getting Keith’s attention and smiling. “You should probably feed Angel. I typically fed her at 8.”

Keith nodded again, getting up and doing so while humming. He knew Lance couldn’t record, so he didn’t care. In fact, Lance instead began humming along. Angel sprinted over to her bowls as Keith filled them, immediately beginning to eat. Keith chuckled slightly, putting her food away.

“So you like old music, too? Amber Run is so great, especially I Found,” Lance chattered.

Keith hummed monotonically in response, grinning to himself for a moment because of Lance’s enthusiasm. He made his way to the couch again and looked at Lance.

“Oh, I meant to tell you earlier, I forget to mention yesterday that you might want to wash Kaltenecker. Sometimes the stores spray certain chemicals that can sicken the cat over time,” Lance suddenly changed the subject.

Keith sighed, raising an eyebrow. “You mean the cow?” At least he was still standing.

“Kaltenecker,” Lance corrected.

Keith rolled his eyes and bent over, picking up Kaltenecker and taking a quick trip to his room to add Kaltenecker to his laundry pile for that night. He was thankful that his apartment had piping set up so that everyone could have their own laundry room, even if it was tiny.

After starting the load of laundry, he went back to the living room to find Lance staring into space as though he’d seen the most mortifying thing possible. But his face was entirely red.

“Lance?”

Lance jerked and nearly made the chair fall backwards, being brought back to reality. “Uh, yeah?” he croaked as he set his chair straight and ran his hands through his hair. He glanced at Keith but quickly looked away.

Keith raised an eyebrow. “What the hell happened while I left for a minute?”

Lance shook his head, clearing his throat. “Nothing. Nothing at all. Just… I’m so sorry for yesterday. I mean, yeah, I’m Spanish and a large part of the McClain family is of Spanish decent so we typically kiss our good friends on the cheek as a goodbye, but I didn’t realize I hadn’t asked you if it was okay before I ran off, and--”  
Keith chuckled, causing Lance to stop rambling. “Lance, it’s fine. We’ve kissed how many times already?”

“But those don’t mean anything! This did!” Lance blurted, ruffling his own hair while scrunching his nose and shutting his eyes tightly.

Lance looked like a confused five-year-old, and Keith found it cute. Though of course, he brushed that aside thinking about what Lance had said.

Keith cleared his throat. “What did this mean, then?”

Lance froze, his eyes popping open while his face went tomato red again. He huffed out a breath after a moment and gulped, nervously laughing, “Th-that you’re a good friend… yeah, yeah. That’s what it meant.”

Keith wasn’t completely sure what made it so hard for Lance to say that, which was slightly concerning, but he nodded with his same old blank expression in response. “Alright. Yeah, we’re good friends by now.”

Something lit up in Lance’s eyes while his cheeks changed from red to pink as he smiled widely. It made Keith grin, too.

“Okay, onto the important stuff,” Lance suddenly changed subject, again. “We have three weeks from tomorrow until the competition, and we _still_ haven’t figured out how to fuse without kissing,” he sighed, spinning around in his chair.

Angel suddenly jumped into Keith’s lap, curling up and closing her eyes. Keith pet her. “Maybe it’s not possible.”

“It should be,” Lance muttered. “Definitely with me.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “Why definitely with you?”

Lance sighed again. He turned his chair around, turning his back to Keith, and put his hands behind his head. “We’re good friends now, right? So I can trust you?”

Keith nodded, then realized Lance couldn’t see him. He cleared his throat. “Yeah.”

There was a pause before Lance spoke up quietly. “I can fuse with Normies, too. Found that out the hard way. Dipped a girl at prom, and bam. We were a fusion, and it wasn’t pretty since we were both clearly distressed. I didn’t get sent to prison because I was only sixteen and did community service for five weeks instead. Hadn’t fused since, until I met you.” He turned around in his chair to give Keith a deathly stare. “I haven’t even told Katie this, so you can’t tell anyone. At all.”

Keith nodded, taking it all in. “Understood.”

Lance sighed, pouting. “I don’t get why it’s so hard for us to fuse.”

“Well,” Keith began, contemplating telling part of his tale, though he was interrupted by thunder and Angel getting startled, scrambling away from him -- tearing his shirt and scratching him in the process.

Lance sucked in a breath through his teeth. “We should have bought a nail clipper… Sorry, dude.”

Keith sighed himself. “I really liked this shirt.” He took it off, throwing it aside in order to not get blood on it. “Maybe I can get Hunk to sew it. Unless you want to go shopping, I guess. I’m running out of shirts that don’t have holes.”

There was a pause, Lance’s eyes widening as his cheeks reddened. He looked away from the screen and cleared his throat. “Um, be over in ten.” He suddenly hung up.

Keith raised his eyebrows, then shaking his head. He’d taken his shirt off, what was the big deal?

_Oh wait._

_Dammit, I wish I’d taken my pants off too._

Being the shameless person he was, Keith smirked to himself due to the ideas of how Lance would’ve reacted, since obviously they’d be priceless reactions, and left his shirt on the couch. He headed to the bathroom to disinfect and wrap bandaging over his stomach to cover up the gash Angel left, as well as using normal bandages to cover the scratches on his arms. He grabbed another t-shirt, slipped it on, and went back to the living room, scrolling through his other text messages -- which consisted of Shiro questioning if he was free next Saturday and Katie pestering him about Lance kissing him on the cheek the night before.

Apparently it took Keith about ten minutes to send his rant of a reply to Katie. Lance knocked on his door, though he wasn’t done yet, so he typed out everything left as quickly as possible.

Lance knocked three more times before yelling through the door, “Keith, let me in already!”

Keith huffed, hit sent, and opened the door to find Lance standing there, surprisingly in a white button-up with the sleeves rolled up, accompanied by formal black pants of some sort -- Keith wouldn’t know the exact style names. He had a blue backpack swung over one shoulder, holding

“Dude, what took you so…”

Lance’s eyes fell to Keith’s chest, his voice catching and instead of finishing his question, he pointed at Keith’s chest, looked back up at him with wide eyes as his face was painted over with red, and questioned, “What. The hell. Are you wearing?”

Keith hadn’t paid any attention to the shirt he’d grabbed from his drawer, so he looked down to find himself wearing a white shirt reading _I SAVE DICK THROUGH CPR_ in red. And specifically all caps, creepily enough.

Keith internally scolded himself while turning and walking to the couch. “Shiro bought it for me a while back as a joke since he used to tease me about being gay when I swore to him I was straight.”  
“Little does he know,” Lance laughed, his cheeks still red but now his smile matching their brightness. “You’re a closet gay, literally and non-literally.”

“That’s not a word, Lance.” Keith settled into the couch.

“Uh-puh-pup, get up,” Lance ordered, sliding his backpack off onto the couch along with any of that embarrassment he was holding. “If we’re going shopping, your outfit needs to be more complete than just that shirt and those jeans.” Lance marched off to Keith’s bedroom before he could get a word in.

Keith rubbed the bridge of his nose, annoyed, and followed Lance to find him scavenging through all his drawers and everything stored in his closet. He crossed his arms and leaned against the side of the doorway, unwilling to attempt to interfere with Lance’s mission since he knew Lance wasn’t going to stop until he was satisfied.

“Shouldn’t I just change my shirt?” Keith asked.

“Put this on, at the very least,” Lance said instead of an actual answer. He threw a red neck scarf at Keith that he’d completely forgotten he had, walking towards him.

“Guess not,” Keith muttered to himself as he wrapped the scarf around his neck.

Lance narrowed his eyes yet again as Keith finished placing the neck scarf, which Keith wasn’t exactly appreciating. He slid a finger against Keith’s nose, Lance’s finger seemingly an ice cube against Keith’s burning nose, and pulled his finger away, Keith’s bangs following Lance’s finger and falling back into place once his finger was too far away.

“Your bangs are so long; they don’t bother you?” Lance questioned, putting one arm across his chest and putting his other hand to his chin in a thinking position.

Keith took his own bangs and pulled them away. He hadn’t realized they were so long since he’d gotten used to seeing through them. He shrugged, letting his bangs go. “Not much.”

Lance scrunched his nose and clicked his tongue, whipping his head around. He suddenly dashed to the other side of the room, where Keith’s dresser stood, and brought over a pair of neon purple sunglasses Keith had. They were also from Shiro. Lance reached forward, carefully putting them on Keith correctly before slowly pushing them up, entrapping Keith’s bangs and pulling them out of his face.

Lance pulled away, wide-eyed. “Whoa, you have a forehead.”

Keith gave him a disappointed look. “Of course I do.”

“Well I’ve never seen it before. How didn’t I know you were an alien or something that doesn’t have a forehead? Instead a black hole is there?” Lance pointed out as though it were a valid point.

“Lance, you’d be dead if my forehead was actually a black hole,” Keith groaned.

Lance shrugged it off with a smile, walking past him. “Come on. We can’t let it get too late.”

Keith followed Lance to his car, glad Lance’s back was turned to him since he couldn’t help but let blood rush to his face since Lance had fiddled with his bangs. Even if it didn’t mean anything, Keith found it embarrassing and endearing and couldn’t do anything about it except hide it when facing Lance.

Climbing into the car, Lance immediately began listing off stores which Keith of course knew nothing about. The entire car ride was Lance simply telling Keith about stores and Keith saying if he’d be interested in going there.

Lance finally pulled into a parking lot behind a restaurant off of a busy shopping district street. “We can at least fit in some of the stores on this street tonight, find you a couple shirts -- and maybe some pants that aren’t black or jeans.”

Keith shuddered at the thought of wearing pants that weren’t black or jeans since black jeans were his favorite, and mainly what he lived in. “Why would I need them?”

“If you ever had to go to anything formal. Duh,” Lance clarified sassily. “Do you really think I’d chose to wear this shit? I’m so uncomfortable, but I had to go to an important meeting with Sera to talk to some of our suppliers for what isn’t grown at home.”

All Keith could do was hum in response. He could never see himself needing anything formal, but if looking at formal clothing would make Lance happy, he’d put up with it.

“Do you even have a job?” Lance questioned.

Keith slowly nodded. He didn’t talk much about his job because he knew he’d get judged -- especially since it paid pretty damn well for the small job it was.

“What is it?” Lance nagged.

It was times like these Keith wished he’d never asked Katie to hook him up with someone to fuse with in the first place.

“I’m… a florist,” Keith croaked out, looking straight ahead instead of at Lance as they walked. The streets were dimly lit by the cars’ headlights and the lights of the stores. There were more pedestrians than Keith expected at the hour, having to make sure he didn’t lose sight of Lance since it would be easy to get separated.

“A florist?! You?! A _florist?!_ ” Lance exclaimed, gawking at Keith.

Keith glanced over quickly to give a grin and then look forward again. Now that he’d said it out loud, he felt a bit more confident. “Yeah. I help out with gardening and indoor plants and flowers at Floren for maybe two hours everyday? Or whenever I’m needed, which is nearly never weekends. Shanelle will call me if I’m needed.”

Lance continued gawking, though it turned into complaining. “You get paid well to help with decorations at a cafe? No fair!”

Keith chuckled. The atmosphere was really nice, and somehow, Keith didn’t mind as Lance went off to ramble about how unfair jobs are. He mostly tuned Lance out, letting his voice flow into the crowd of voices and sirens and engines and beeping walk signs. The sky was just as it was the night they’d met; the green moon was shining brightly against the purple sky, the brown clouds sometimes blocking out the sun. A grin found its way on his face.

It stayed there until his arm was pulled nearly out of his socket as he was dragged into a store suddenly. Maybe tuning Lance out while going shopping was a bad idea.

“We’re buying you formal pants of some sort; I don’t care what you say,” Lance commanded as he brought Keith to a rack of pants.

Of course, they all looked the same to Keith. Uncomfortable. Despite his death stare, Lance made him try on four pairs of pants. He opened the changing room door, still wishing death upon Lance.

“Well? Did you like any of them?” Lance asked, a sparkle in his eye.

Keith’s death stare deadpanned. “No.” He threw the pants onto a rack for unfitting clothes and walked past Lance, making his way towards the doors of the store.

His arm was grabbed again, bringing him to a halt. He looked over his shoulder, glaring again at Lance.

“Let me at least buy you a button-up shirt you can pair with black jeans,” Lance pleaded.

Keith’s glare deepened. Lance stuck out his bottom lip and widened his eyes. Keith smirked. “Cute, but that isn’t going to get me to buy something here.”

Lance’s grip loosened, allowing Keith to wiggle his arm out while Lance paused before swallowing and lowering his gaze. Softly he mumbled,  “I’ll buy you a red one.”

Keith’s eyes widened, both confused about why Lance was so set on buying him something formal and about why Lance seemed so down all of a sudden. Of course, he wasn’t going to bother Lance about emotions in public. And it’d probably turn out to be something stupid and overly dramatic. So, instead, Keith made a retort. “This coming from the guy who says red is the color of death.”

Lance sighed. “But you like it, so if that’s the only thing you’re going to agree to, then let’s get one in red.” His hand dropped to his side, his other hand then gripping his elbow.

Keith grinned. “I’ll pay if I like it. If I don’t and you still want to force it on me, you pay.” He held his hand out. “Deal?”

Lance looked up, his face warming into a grin as well as he reached out and shook Keith’s hand. “Deal.” He immediately went off, sifting through the available shirts around the entire store like a madman -- running around, tugging the shirts, doing them up and undoing them, rubbing them on his face, and even sniffing them. Keith could’ve sworn he’d gone insane.

Lance finally settled, staying in one place for more than a few seconds. He was at the other end of the store from where Keith had stood the entire time, his back turned to Keith. After a good minute of him standing still, he turned on his heel and walked towards Keith with his hands behind his back. He stopped in front of Keith with a nervous look and cleared his throat. “I found something, but it isn’t red. Will you try it on anyway?”

Keith shrugged. “Depends whether I hate the color or not.”

Lance pulled out a hot pink shirt from behind his back. It was a button-up with a single pocket on the right. “It was the closest I could find to red in this design. The fabric is really soft…” Lance’s voice trailed off and he held the shirt out.

Keith took it with a grin. “I’ll go try it.” He began walking away, quickly glancing over his shoulder to find Lance pumping a fist and smiling widely while muttering, “Yes!”

Keith couldn’t help but smile to himself as he headed to the fitting rooms. It didn’t take him long to get into the shirt. He was about to take it off, though he paused.

_Maybe Lance will want to see before we buy it…_

“Lance?”

“Yeah?” Lance’s voice called back, right outside the door.

Keith opened the door, leaning in the doorway with one hand on his hip and the other pushing his hair behind his ear. “Do you think it’s worth buying or not? I’m not sure how I feel about myself in pink.”

Lance’s face turned red while he stammered some incoherent syllables, then shutting his mouth and taking a deep breath before blurting out, “Y-You look really nice in that! I… I’ll buy it for you if you’re not sure about the color! That was the deal!” Lance nervously laughed, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away from Keith, which defeated the purpose of Keith showing Lance.

Keith rolled his eyes, shutting the door and changing back, then opening the door and throwing the shirt at Lance. “Alright, you’re paying.” He smirked and winked over his shoulder at the flustered Lance, who hadn’t been expecting a shirt being thrown at him.

Payback for Lance throwing the scarf earlier that evening.

“Huh?!” Lance stammered, finally catching up with Keith.

“Hi! Did you find everything okay?” the cashier asked politely, as all cashiers did -- or were supposed to.

Keith simply stopped at the cash register and looked at Lance, nodding his head towards the counter.

Lance narrowed his eyes at him while placing the shirt down. Keith smirked in response.

“Just the shirt tonight?”

Lance nodded, his eyes glued on Keith while he reached into his back pocket, taking out his wallet and practically slapping it down on the counter.

“Drama queen,” Keith muttered, finally looking away from Lance.

Lance scoffed. “Don’t you call me that! You can’t throw things at people with no warning and tell them they’re paying!”

The cashier laughed, causing both Keith and Lance to turn red out of embarrassment over their pettiness. “Are you two on a date?”

That surely spiked the intensity of the red.

Lance nervously laughed, Keith simply stayed silent and kept his eyes away from the two other people. “Pfft, what? Ha, no, we’re just dance partners. I have to get him a shirt since we made a bet, of some sort.”

Lance’s statement made Keith’s world seemingly stopped and turn gray for a moment. He didn’t want to acknowledge why, so he didn’t. He shoved everything to the back of his mind and focused on the fact that yes, they were dance partners and they were competing together in three weeks. That wasn’t incorrect.

But he couldn’t deny the fact that Lance’s awkwardness about the idea of them being on a date hurt.

Was he going to ever speak up about it? No.

He didn’t really pay attention as Lance and the cashier kept talking while he paid. Or while they walked back out to the car. Or while they got in.

There was a moment of silence. No rambling from Lance, no retorts from Keith, just silence.  
“Keith, you okay, buddy?”

Being called ‘buddy’ hurt, too.

Keith stared out his window and gave a slight nod.

“You aren’t looking so hot… Let’s get you back to your apartment,” Lance gently decided, starting the car.

It was a silent drive back. Lance had turned on the radio, but nothing came out of either of them. Keith’s chest felt tight and pained while his head pounded. There was too much going on in his head. His feeling’s for Lance, Lance’s awkwardness, Lance’s nosiness, being called buddy, being told he was a good friend to Lance, and so forth. Nothing in that moment felt right, and all Keith wanted to do was climb into bed and turn off all the lights to be by himself.

So, when they arrived at Keith’s apartment building, he got out of the car with the shirt, quietly thanked Lance, and went up to his apartment to do exactly that. He didn’t even bother putting the shirt away; he simply let go of the bag it was in, letting it fall to the bedroom floor, and slipped off the scarf and the sunglasses. He quickly filled a small glass with water in the dark, able to do so because of the fridge’s lighting, and took his nighttime pills. He quickly gave Angel a quick pet, who was currently drinking some water, and returned to his room. He climbed into bed and let everything slip away.

Until a specific voice woke him. Or rather, some specific speeching woke him.

Keith groaned as the screeching continued, sitting up in bed and rubbing his eyes. His alarm clock told him it was 2 in the morning. He sighed and got out of bed and turned on his light to find Angel sitting on the floor, staring at him while meowing so loudly he would gladly classify it as screeching.

“It’s 2 in the morning, what do you want?” Keith grumbled, bending down and petting the cat’s head.

Then he noticed the toy mice at her feet and realized he’d forgotten Kaltenecker in the washing machine.

He went to the laundry room with Angel tailing him and took Kaltenecker out of the washing machine, placing her in the dryer and letting it run. He picked up Angel and cradled her in his arms, assuming that’s what she wanted, and brought her to the living room. He sat down on the couch and got comfortable with Angel in his lap. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep on him. He stayed awake, his mind still feeling fogged from the evening. He hated the feeling and didn’t want to allow his thoughts to roam free, so he took his chip out only to find a stream of messages from the exact person he didn’t want anything to do with at the moment.

_Lance (0001 - 750 - 8090)_ _ : Are you really okay? _

_Lance (0001 - 750 - 8090):_ _I know you nodded when I asked in the car but it didn’t feel like a sincere nod_

_Lance (0001 - 750 - 8090):_ _It was too small and too slow_

_Lance (0001 - 750 - 8090):_ _You didn’t seem okay_

_Lance (0001 - 750 - 8090):_ _Don’t do anything stupid_

_Lance (0001 - 750 - 8090):_ _I’m here if you need anything okay?_

Keith sighed and put his head back, placing his arm over his face while chuckling in a pained way. “A sincere nod, huh? He can tell that but he can’t tell that non-literally isn’t a word.”

The dryer finished; he’d only set it to a five minute run. He gently picked Angel up and cradled her again as he went to the dryer and took Kaltenecker out. Angel immediately starting batting at it, so Keith placed both her and it down on the ground. Angel pounced it and yowled at it. It felt like an awkward moment where a mother scolds a child that ran off. Keith chuckled and shook his head, crouching to gently pet Angel’s head. She stopped focusing on the cow and basically head-butted Keith’s hand, which he assumed and hoped was just her wanting pets, and not some sort of cat-threat-language. He grinned in a disheartened manner, other thoughts settling in place of thoughts of Lance. They weren’t any better.

“At least I could save you,” Keith muttered to the cat. He was thankful cats couldn’t have conversations.

He stood up and wiped any tears threatening to fall from the corners of his eyes, deciding to climb back into bed. He didn’t want to deal with feelings; who did?

He let everything slip away again, blocking the thoughts of his past or Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're now officially halfway to the end of this book y'all  
> or a ninth of the way done with the entire series  
> that's a scary thought for me jesus  
> ANWYHO THESE ARE THE LINKS TO THE AMAZING ART I'VE GOTTEN:
> 
> https://www.instagram.com/p/BV2UoafBq7a/?taken-by=misty.dragonfly  
> \- angel in her tower, nyma, and lance and keith at the store (from last chapter) (THESE ARE AMAZING SKETCHES) (ALL HER ART IS AMAZING) (GIRL ILY)
> 
> https://www.instagram.com/p/BV5e83ABjBR/?taken-by=nutter.bean  
> \- colored version of lance and keith at the store (my bestie let me digitalize and color her wonderful sketch)
> 
> https://www.instagram.com/p/BVs_EFEAQNx/?taken-by=pidgedee  
> \- keith with angel sleeping on him <3 (SUCH A RELAXING PIC TYSM STILL DARLING)


	8. Take Over My Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i had to spend all of the second half of the summer and beginning of the school year in pt and getting back into normal life so after all that time finally here's chapter 8  
> some stupid notes:  
> i heard about keith originally having white hair and well i’ve been trying to think of something that physically shows on keith when he doesn’t take his pills so i decided that would be it -- losing the pigment in his hair, if anyone gets confused on that here’s this note in advance  
> also i realized when i started it last year i decided the imaginary continent they live on is voltrago because of ninjago and while that's cringe-worthy i'm keeping it  
> peanut's my name, loving kids' shows is my game
> 
> here's more important-ish notes:  
> there’s a lot of oc’s in this story i've now realized but i can FINALLY write matt without feeling scared i’m getting him wrong because of the blessing known as season 4  
> on an entirely different note aaa we’re finally getting into the stuff i’ve been waiting to write since i first started outlining this book! i’m so so so excited omg there’s so many things coming up i’ve wanted to put down word for word in ages so keep your eyes peeled for my sporadic updates if you’re as excited as i am  
> sorry updates are all over the place, hopefully my life will pull together properly by december  
> (and sorry my notes are so long lmao)
> 
> enjoy!!

What better way was there to wake up at 8 on a Saturday morning than with a pounding headache from a hangover and his brother continuously calling him despite how many times he declined?

Literally anything Keith could think of.

Finally, when call number seven came, he gave in.

Shiro opened his mouth to say something, but his voice caught and he simply stared at Keith with an open mouth while Keith glared into the screen.

“What did I do to deserve this?” Keith murmured.

“Um… Keith?” Shiro’s face was a sheet of paper, oddly. Keith had been mad at him many times before for calling him early in the morning on weekends, so what made this time so different for Shiro?

Keith raised an eyebrow. “Uh, yeah? What?” He let out a yawn while Shiro cleared his throat.

“You might want to take a look in a mirror. Maybe then your memory will be jogged,” Shiro nearly muttered too quietly and sloppily for Keith to understand.

_What’s Shiro’s problem?_ Keith wondered as he groaned and slowly sat up, stretching his back and arms before looking over at the full-length mirror in the corner of his room from his bed.

His eyebrows, eyelashes, and the roots of his hair were all white.

Keith’s eyes nearly popped out of his head as he scampered out of bed, racing to the kitchen to grab a glass of water and running back to his room, yelling, “My pills! How did I forget my pills? No, no, no, no, no…”

“Keith? Keith, you have to calm down,” Shiro called, though it wasn’t much help since he wasn’t there with Keith.

“My _pills!_ ” Keith practically screamed as he set the glass down and popped the little bottle open.

“Hey, you’re going to be okay. Everything’s okay,” Shiro assured.

Keith wanted to blurt out exactly why he wasn’t okay and why everything might not be okay if he forgets again, but Shiro falsely thought the pills were for anxiety and nutrition.

Little did he know it was what kept Keith sane.

He quickly downed two pills with his water and closed his eyes, sitting down on his bed so his back was to the screen cam. He waited for his pulse to slow and relaxed his muscles. His mind stayed a sea of clashing waves even as the pills quickly kicked in.

“Hey, it’s arcade day, so you have nothing to worry about it. It’s a free day for you. No stress, no work, just you, me, Katie, and Matt being kids,” Shiro attempted to cheer Keith up.

Keith let out a soft hum, a grin finding its way to his face. What truly brought a grin to his face was a certain fluff ball jumping up onto the bed and situating herself in his lap, purring enough that her throat vibrated against Keith’s legs.

“Is that the cat you bought?” Shiro asked in a simple tone, obviously just trying to make conversation.

Keith nodded, carefully bending back to grab his chip and hold it out so that Angel was in the camera’s frame and Shiro could see her.

Shiro’s eyes bulged out of his head as he gasped. “Is that a _real_ cat? How did someone convince you to get a real cat?”

“Lance volunteers at an _actual_ pet organization. Why would I have gotten a robot?” Keith huffed, upset with the rareness of living pets in their society. He rubbed Angel’s head gently, in return getting louder purring.

“I hadn't realized you meant an alive cat. I would've never thought you would be someone to own a living pet,” Shiro chuckled.

Keith glared at him through the screen. “I had no choice really. It was either she died or I took her in.”

Shiro waved his hand. “Well, it was sweet of you to take her in. Now, come on, we agreed to meet up at the coffee shop at 8:30. You have ten minutes to get ready; I’ll come pick you up.”

Keith simply let out a groan, Shiro chuckling again. “See you in ten,” Keith muttered before tapping the screen, thus ending the call. He flopped down on his back and sighed, pulling a chunk of his bangs away from his head and watching as the black pigment slowly crawled back to the tips. Angel jumped off of him and he took the opportunity to get up. Carefully walking through the dozen crushed cans in his room, he quickly got rinsed off in the shower, threw clothes on, put food and water out for Angel, shoved a muffin in his mouth as breakfast, downed some painkillers for the small hangover, and headed out. Shiro’s car was already waiting in front of the building, along with many others. It was a Saturday, afterall.

“Hey, hurry, we’re going to be late!” Shiro called out his window. For whatever reason Keith couldn’t figure out, Shiro always insisted on having the two front windows down when he was parked.

Keith opened the passenger door and hopped in, buckling up and looking over to find Shiro staring at him.

“Your hair’s still a bit white, buddy,” he commented, then looking forward and pulling out into the street.

Keith grunted, looking at his feet. “Yeah, I know. It takes some time.”

They simply drove down the long street. Keith could feel the sun on his skin, it's yellow-green glow shining on his arms and cheek. He grinned in the warmth, letting his anxiety go and ensuring himself that he was going to have fun. It’d been awhile since he’d hung out with Shiro, Katie, and Matt since he agreed to being Lance’s dance partner.

He wouldn't let anyone know what he’d been busy with this past month other than Lance, though.

Which, of course, was simply spending time to himself contemplating the existence of love and/or what Lance meant to him. Which was also the reason he’d forgotten to take his pills the night before; he’d gotten too drunk to remember.

“You feeling okay? A little bird told me that something went on with Lance,” Shiro suddenly spoke up in his gentle, genuinely caring tone that could make even Keith’s stone heart cave. No one could hide anything from Shiro.

Keith sighed, remembering the last time he’d seen Lance and regretting being friends with Katie. “If that little bird has golden curls and glasses, then there’s nothing more to be said. You've probably heard it all.”

Shiro chuckled. “You like him lots, huh? That’s something Katie didn't mention. Why are you avoiding him?”

Keith groaned, glaring out the window. “He gave mixed messages. I got my hopes up and wish I hadn't. I don't want to talk about it.” He honestly didn’t know how to handle his feelings, hence avoiding Lance for a week. He didn’t want to admit he didn’t know what to do so he got avoidant.

Shiro let out a hum and said nothing more on the subject, respecting Keith’s wishes. He paused before speaking softly again. “Have you been drinking all week?”

Keith groaned. “I drink to forget but I always remember,” he muttered.

“Isn't that something Katie says?” Shiro questioned.

“Yeah,” Keith huffed. “It is.”

There was a minute of silence before Shiro decided to turn on the radio. A song came on, one both of them knew. They came to a red light, giving Shiro the opening to elbow Keith. Keith glared at him with a grunt. Shiro lifted his eyebrows in response, speaking in their silent language.

Shiro wanted Keith to sing with him.

He looked forward with a huff. “I don't want to sing, Shiro.”

“Oh come on, you love this one,” Shiro urged, “and I haven’t gotten to sing with you in forever.”

Keith rolled his eyes with a groan, looking out the window. “I haven’t sung in forever.”

“Well then come on! Your voice must miss it,” Shiro teased as the light turned green and morning traffic moved again.

Keith groaned. Shiro began singing. Shiro’s singing was wonderful, hearty but gentle. It tempted Keith to join.

After a verse, he couldn’t help but join in.

_“No one but you got me feeling this way,_

_There’s so much we can’t explain_

_Maybe we’re helping each other escape,_

_I’m with ya”_

They both sang out the lyrics to _Perfect Stranger_ by Jonas Blue. The only reason it was playing was because on Keith’s and Shiro’s favorite radio channel, Saturday mornings only ‘oldie’ songs were played -- songs from

a century ago. They belted to the next few songs, then finally merged out of the weekend morning traffic into the parking lot of Floren.

“I’ll order our drinks while you find Katie and Matt.” Shiro smiled as he unbuckled his belt and stepped out of the car.  
Keith simply nodded, doing the same and heading into Floren. He held the door for Shiro and they split ways, Keith staying in the doorway and scanning over the busy cafe to find the two heads of golden curls.

He muttered under his breath a wish that they weren’t short, then taking a few steps in to get a better look.

A ponytail of curls bounced as a head lifted at a table in the corner, narrowed eyes scanning her surroundings before locking on Keith. He glare and frown didn’t change as he walked towards her. Keith opened his mouth to say a greeting as sat down next to Katie, though he was quickly interrupted.

“You haven’t responded to Lance in a whole week after he ran out my door because of a phone call, and guess who’s been getting all the consequential trouble that caused?” Katie growled, staring at her coffee instead of Keith even though he knew he was being talked to. She didn’t give him a second to respond. “Yours truly, thank you, jackass. Now get your moping head out of your ass, drink your coffee, have me beat your ass at Street Fighter again, and text Lance. No excuses.” She picked her to-go cup up and took a large gulp, putting her feet on the table. Matt cleared his throat with a stern look that she simply stuck her tongue out to as she put her cup down with a sigh. “Shiro’s getting your coffee, isn’t he?”

Keith gulped down his fear of the shortie sitting next to him that he very well knew could take him on with her intelligence. “Yeah, he’s getting himself one too.”

Katie eyed him up and down as though analyzing every single muscle movement. It was very uncomfortable. “Why _exactly_ did you ignore Lance for a whole week? I thought things were going well between you two.” She took a sip of coffee, then staring at the coffee. “Hell, I thought you two were close to fucking each other.”

Keith’s heart stiffened, his lungs caught, his stomach fell, and his blood pressure rose. He sipped in a breath and gave out a grunt. “No, we aren’t going to hook up, as we’ve told you a million times.” His voice was shaky, as were his fingers tapping on his knees. He gulped, wanting to clear his mind of Lance. Katie wasn’t exactly helping with dealing with Lance not having feelings for him while he did.

“You know, Lance flirted like crazy before you walked into his life. I haven’t seen him flirt in weeks,” Katie commented. “Have you ever seen him flirt? I think he’s only flirted with you if anyone since you two were paired up.”

Keith suck in another breath as every muscle in him tensed further. “Not helping,” he grumbled.

Katie took a purposefully obnoxious, loud sip. Matt cleared his throat.

“I think what Pidge meant to say is that we’re here to help you. Did you two have a fight?” he gently offered forward.

“I hate when you call me that,” Katie growled, sinking her in seat and continuing in a mumble. “Matt’s right, we want to help.”

Keith wasn’t inclined to take the offer, speaking sharply. “No. It’s complicated.”

“Did you two have a disagreement and find it hard to communicate afterwards?” Matt continued gently. Matt was like a second Shiro. That didn’t exactly please Keith.

Keith groaned and lowered his head with a shrug. “I don’t know what to say to him.”

Katie put her cup down, exclaiming, “Then how about you text him something as simple as ‘hi’ or ‘how are you’?”

Keith felt guilt beginning to taint his blood and fill his head. He didn’t respond; he didn’t know what to say. Everything felt too overwhelming for him to figure out what to say. The three of them sat in a silence, full of unruly thoughts for Keith. Being the savior he was, Shiro came over with Keith’s cup of coffee and his own.

“Well, are we going?” Shiro asked with a smile. Shiro’s gentle, genuine smile always put Keith at ease, as it did anyone that saw it.

The three of them nodded and got up, Katie chucking her empty cup into a nearby disposal unit and Keith drinking his. The four of them headed out, getting into their separate cars again and driving not even a minute down the road to something that looked like an old, run-down strip mall marking the transition between the downtown area and the suburban area of the city. Shiro simply talked at Keith during the ride and as they stepped out, Keith gratefully not needing to speak. Of course, as soon as Katie approached him again, there was speaking to be done.

“Come play Street Fighter,” Katie commanded, grabbing hold of Keith’s arm and dragging him in through glass doors.

The arcade was set up just as the historical 1900’s arcades, which to any gamer was still seen as the epitome of games. All of the games were old, refurbished arcade machines, still taking quarters, even though the American currency had been banned half a century ago. They were all intact and brightly lit, though none of their oldie graphics were tampered with. Anyone and everyone could see the sparkle in both Matt’s and Katie’s eyes, while Shiro was simply happy to be there and Keith didn’t mind the monthly arcade meeting.

“This is heaven,” Katie breathed out with nearly no voice, nearly bouncing as she headed down an aisle of games to find their typical spots at the two Street Fighter machines. Keith followed behind, wanting to call Katie a nerd but he was too worried Katie was going to explode one of these days when they entered the arcade.

They took their places without saying a word, Katie handing over a quarter left over from their last meeting -- all of them having put in pallura to exchange for quarters, one pallura being worth five quarters. Keith and Katie put their quarters in and immediately got to work, their hands flying as the machines yelled words at them in a seemingly odd accent.

“K.O.!” the machines announced loudly, Katie pulling away and pushing her glasses up further on her nose triumphantly while Keith groaned.

“That makes win number 78 this year,” Katie commented, holding out another quarter to Keith, which he took without looking. They started another round, this one Katie talking in. “So what’s so hard about talking to Lance specifically?” she pried.

Keith gave a groan in response. “I told you. I don’t know what to say to him.”

“K.O.!”

Katie glared at Keith, whipping out her chip and pulling the phone screen up. “Really? That’s it? Are you sure? I can call him right now and--”

“No, don’t,” Keith quickly interjected, though it was too late. The number had already been clicked and the phone was dialing.

Ringing came from not far away, though Keith knew there was no way it was Lance’s. It had to be just that coincidental, right?

Wrong.

Keith realized the ringing was coming from the machine in front of his own, the person in front of him letting out a huff and answering. “Katie, what do you want?! You just made me lose Mappy!”

On top of Lance’s voice ringing in Keith’s ears now that he was paying more attention to his surroundings rather than just Katie and Street Fighter, Tsuyu’s voice suddenly chimed up. “Ha! I just beat your Pacman record! Watch out world, Tsuyoshi just beat Lance. Who says nice guys can’t come out on top?”

Keith’s face turned pale white, his entire being freezing.

Katie looked at Keith for a moment, then let out a sigh. “You were supposed to tell me when you got here with Tsuyu, Lance.”

“Sorry, we walked in and got started right away. I’ve only played one game and you made me fail it! This is unjust,” Lance whined, Keith hearing it from both Katie’s phone projection and Lance at the machine in front of his.

“Hey, Katie, I just beat Lance’s Pacman record!” Tsuyu called over to the phone.

Katie stayed silent, poking her head in between the machines to get a clearer look at Tsuyu and Lance while Keith stayed frozen and overwhelmed with the current situation. “We’re right here.”

Lance screeched, while Tsuyu caught a snicker in a snort and greeted Katie’s physical being warmly.

Keith could feel Lance’s suspicious glare in his tone of voice as he spoke to Katie. “ _He_ isn’t with you by any chance, is he?”

“ _He_? As in none other than the emo troll?” Katie questioned, still sticking her head in between the machines.

“Wait, she knows about that?” Keith jumped in to ask, thinking it was just a thing with Lance. He supposed not, now.

Lance let out a huff, Tsuyu then calling out, “Wait, Lance, where are you going buddy?”

Not even five seconds later, there was a very angry Lance in Keith’s face.

“Why are you here?! You haven’t talked to me in a week! A week! And we have a competition coming up, our first gig! And _now_ it’s okay to see me again, or talk to me?!”

All Keith could do was get himself to pull his hands away from the Street Fighter joystick and buttons, look down with a gulp, and mumble, “Sorry.”

“Sorry?! You think a simple ‘sorry’ is going to make up for a week of the cold shoulder?! I don’t think so!” Lance wouldn’t stop yelling, which was the hammer pushing the nail into Keith’s lava heart.

Keith couldn’t speak. His heart was about to burst. Lance snarled and yelled again.

“Just leave if you’re going to ignore me!”

“Why are you everywhere in my life? Why do you need to be involved with me more than once a week?” Keith growled, finally looking up at Lance as his heart exploded in his chest, his lungs filling with hotness and his skin burning while he formed fists. “You can’t take over my life!”

“Well, this is worse than we’d hoped,” Tsuyu suddenly said to Katie, who had wides eyes and a pale face. Tsuyu received both a purple and a blue glare. He sucked in a breath, then commenting quieter to Katie, “Much worse.” Keith and Lance could still hear him.

There was a very, very awkward and tense moment. Keith’s heart was pounding, as were all of his veins. His head was a hurricane of anger and sadness swirling around guilt, and his legs felt weak while his hands stayed clenched in fists.

Lance finally spoke up, turning to and continuing to yell at Keith. “We’re dance partners! You agreed to this! You’re the one who got me to accept you as my dance partner, and now you decide it’s _me_ who’s taking too much of _your_ time?! You wanted this; you should be okay with the idea that I’m a big part of your life now and should be okay with me being motivated to spend time with you so that we can practice!”

Keith let out a hiss from the back of his throat, opening his mouth to answer Lance’s anger but Katie finally cleared her throat, silencing Keith before he said anything rash and drawing both boys’ attention to herself. “How about we go get baked pretzels and sit down? You two need to calm down and talk this out rationally.”

Keith’s blood boiled down, his legs still weak but his hands releasing, instead being shoved into his sweatshirt pockets. He quickly glanced sideways at Lance, who seemed to have calmed as Katie’s call as well. The four of them made their way to the small food court, Shiro and Matt nowhere to be found, off doing their own thing. They walked out of the aisle and constantly to the right till they hit a sudden change, the entire room becoming a food court. A quarter of the total room was the food court, and with the small overall room for a public place, there were only three tables to eat at. Lance plopped himself down at the nearest table, crossing his arms on the table and turning his back to Keith with the lift of his chin as Keith sat down next to him. Katie and Tsuyu went to get the pretzels, leaving Keith and Lance in an awkward silence as Keith stared at his hands crossed on the table’s surface. Guilt twisted his stomach, him constantly shifting in his seat the slightest bit.  
But, with Keith’s luck, things had to become even more awkward as he looked up from his hands and to his left at the bathrooms, originally just to stretch his neck a bit.

That original idea didn’t stay as his eyes immediately caught those that he thought he hadn’t seen in over a year.

“Flinn?”

 

Keith sitting next to him was awful after they had been set up and fought, understandably. Lance had been asked by Katie to go to the arcade with Tsuyu and meet her there, saying it’d been too long since the three of them had hung out just them. Of course Lance felt guilty for the argument, but he couldn’t let Keith think that now. He needed Keith to fully apologize and make things up before he apologized for getting as upset as he did; his anger was justified, after all.

The silence irked him. Lance hated silence, oh so much. Silence between him and Keith was the worst, wishing Keith would say something. He should’ve been careful with what he wished for, because that something was not something he wanted to hear come from Keith’s mouth.

“Flinn?”

Although a small mumble, it still caught Lance’s ears. He remembered quite clearly that Flinn was the name of Keith’s ex. How could he forget that detail? He couldn’t.

Lance knit his eyebrows, finally uncrossing his arms and looking at Keith. “Flinn?” he questioned, puzzled, trying to figure out where Keith was looking. He looked over at the bathrooms, guessing that was where Keith was looking, and immediately spotted who Keith was talking about. It was like nothing had changed from the time of the photo; a burly man dressed like a motorcycle gang member, but with a face too soft to be one. This man was looking in their direction.

Then the man started walking over, a smile blossoming on his face. “Keith? I didn’t think I’d see you here!” He stood in front of Keith, only about a foot away, towering over Keith as Keith was sitting down -- though it was doubtful that the man wouldn’t tower over him standing, seeing as he was about Lance’s height if not taller. He added with a laugh, “I’m here to meet an old biker friend.”

Neither of them moved, Lance watching closely. Keith’s blank face stayed as he blinked at the man blankly and the man grinned back. Finally, the man spoke up softly.

“Hey, Keith.”  
Keith cleared his throat, Lance noticing a wide grin starting on Keith’s face. “Hey, Flinn. B-been a while.”

Lance narrowed his eyes, not liking what he was starting to see -- a tint to Keith’s cheeks, a glimmer in Keith’s eyes, a grin on Keith’s face. All not okay. He turned his skeptical gaze from Keith to Flinn, analyzing his wavy, light brown hair, his bright, hazel eyes, and his smooth, pale skin, dotted with freckles across his cheeks.

“It’s been a long while, and you’re still as gorgeous as ever, my prince,” Flinn chuckled endearingly, ruffling Keith’s hair a bit. Although it was a light greeting with a laugh, the man was quite loud.

Lance’s eyes narrowed further, acknowledging that this man was competition. And by competition, he meant way better than himself. By a long shot. Lance’s heart sank, until he grasped what he was mad at Keith for again. Why did he care anyway? It wasn’t like he had a chance with Keith anyway. Maybe he didn’t even want a chance. He wasn’t sure.

All he was sure about was that he didn’t like the zealous look on Keith’s face that leaked into his voice as it left his mouth. “You’re still going to call me that?” Keith’s face faltered for the slightest second, falling into a frown, though it immediately returned to a smile. “I think it’s been too long for that.”

Flinn leaned forward, getting more in Keith’s face with a smirk -- which Lance really didn't like. “I think it hasn't been long enough.” Flinn shifted, straightening himself with another laugh. He moved his focus and looked at Lance, raising his eyebrows, then looking back at Keith with a forward nod. “Who’s this angry looking fellow?”

Keith looked over his shoulder, his face definitely dropping. He turned back to Flinn. “This is Lance, my partner.” His voice caught before he finished the thought, assumably realizing his mistake. “Dance partner. I’m here with my brother and some friends for a day out.”

Flinn stepped to the side and leaned forward, holding out a hand. “Lance, nice to meet you!” he cheered, still loud. Flinn had to be naturally loud, Lance thought.

Lance kept a skeptical glare, looking Flinn up and down again as he shook Flinn’s hand slowly. “Nice to meet you too.” He quickly pulled his hand away, a thought running through his mind. He stood up. “I’ll leave you two to catch up and go see what’s taking Katie and Tsuyu so long.”

Keith didn’t object, as deep down in Lance’s heart he wished would happen -- he wouldn’t admit it to himself that that’s what he wanted, despite his heart twisting and his stomach churning. Something felt off. Everything felt off. He knew that trying to act as though he really just wanted to be friends with Keith wasn’t helping himself, but since he thought that was what Keith wanted, he didn’t want to make things awkward. They had a competition coming up that they’d been preparing for in the last month, after all.

He spotted Katie and Tsuyu waiting at the snack counter, Katie leaning her elbows on the counter with a sour face and Tsuyu talking at her. Tsuyu spotted Lance, giving a smile and a wave. Tsuyu’s smile and wave put a smile on his own face as he waved back and walked up to them.

“Hey, what are you doing up here?” Tsuyu asked, hope singing from his heart. “Did you and Keith make up?”

Lance’s smile fell into a scrunched frown, crossing his arms. “No, Flinn suddenly appeared before he even bothered saying anything to me.”

“Who’s Flinn?” Katie asked, a sour expression still pulling her eyes nearly closed and the sides of her mouth down.

“Keith’s _ex_ ,” Lance emphasized in a growling tone, extremely unhappy with saying that out loud.

Katie’s and Tsuyu’s eyes popped out of their heads. “His _what?!_ ” they exclaimed in unison.

Lance rolled his eyes, turning to lean his own elbows on the counter, though with his back turned to the kitchen rather than to the tables; as Katie had herself positioned. “His ex-boyfriend. They dated when Keith was younger apparently? I thought you two would know.” He glared Keith and Flinn down, both of them talking with wide smiles and laughing, Keith still flustered with bright red cheeks and batting Flinn’s hands away whenever he ruffled Keith’s hair. The scene made Lance groan.

“He had a boyfriend?! I was never informed he had a boyfriend!” Katie screamed, waving her arms for once while looking up at Lance. Katie rarely got riled up enough to use her arms; this was a serious case to her.

“I didn't either!” Tsuyu exclaimed to add in, putting his hands on his face with a smile. Katie seemed concerned while Tsuyu seemed excited.

Lance rolled his eyes again, increasingly displeased. “Well, now you know; the emo troll had a boyfriend at one point, and he’s shown up today. Of all days, he had to show up _today._ ”

Tsuyu’s excitement faded, sighing and putting a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “This is bad timing. I'm sorry, dude.”

Lance waved his hand, though he still glared and pouted. “You didn't do anything, buddy -- Flinn did,” he growled. “There’s nothing to do about it but watch the two gush over each other.” He shuddered.

“Why is this such a dilemma for you?” Katie hummed suspectedly with a malevolent smile. “Are you jealous?”

Lance forced a laugh, lying through his teeth, “No, what the hell. It’s not like I’ve put a ton of work into being a perfect dance partner for this asshole who’ll happily ignore his partner for a week but talk to an ex as soon as they bump into each other.”

Katie snorted. “Work? What work have you been putting in?”

Lance’s icy glare turned to Katie. “I’ve spent hours working on strengthening and coordination on my own and _I’m_ always the one to reach out _him_. But what’s he done?” Lance used his hand to count off as he listed, “Ignored me, lied to me, continuously been difficult -- the whole grumper troll package!” He let out a huff, crossing his arms again.

Katie fell silent and Tsuyu stayed silent, the air becoming uncomfortable as Lance was up in flames. The more he thought of how much Keith was a jerk, the more he regretted working for Keith, helping Keith, reaching to Keith, and meeting Keith. Hell, he’d given up flirting because he was sure he could get Keith eventually. He’d actually fallen in love with someone, which he hadn’t done since high school. Why did it have to be Keith? Sure, Keith was attractive, but he didn’t even have the right mind to flirt with Keith. Keith was pushing him away. Keith wasn’t interested. And he _knew_ it.

His heart cracked as his thoughts built, finally exploding into a million pieces with the feeling of knowing Keith wasn’t interested.

His gaze returned to Katie.

“Why did you set us up?”

His voice was soft and shaky as he fought back tears. He didn’t let her answer, simply walking away from the counter, and everything. Tsuyu had Lance drive him instead of the other way around, so he was free to leave and drive home on his own. Tsuyu could just catch a ride from Katie. In this state, Lance didn’t care. He really didn’t.

The doors were in sight. The tears were stinging Lance’s eyes and he forced them to stay put till he was out of sight. The restriction got tougher and tougher to hold with every step closer to the doors.

His elbow was caught by a firm hand, stopping him suddenly. He didn’t need to turn to know whose hand it was, and it wasn’t one he wanted to be held by right then.

“Lance, where are you--”

Keith didn’t need to finish. “Away from you! That’s what you want, right?! This was a mistake, this _is_ a mistake! I should have never agreed to this!” Lance yelled, refusing to look at Keith and instead glaring out the door at his car that he wished he was in. It was a good thing no one was outside and barely anyone was at the arcade.

“What is up with you? I stop talking to you for one week and it’s the biggest sin?” Keith snapped back, though not in a raised tone.

“A straight week! A straight, whole week! What did I do to get that?!” Lance exclaimed in response, shutting his eyes to get rid of the tears.

“I got busy! I didn’t know what to say, okay? A lot has been on my mind lately,” Keith responded, his grip on Lance’s arm tightening while Lance struggled to free himself.

“Like what?! That you don’t want to do this anymore?!” Lance squirmed further, finally looking back at Keith and trying to push his hand off, though Keith wouldn’t budge. Keith’s face displayed pure frustration, though something behind his purple contacts showed concern.

Keith opened his mouth to say something though Flinn came over, putting a hand on Keith’s shoulder. Keith shut his mouth and let go of Lance’s arm, instead using his hand to rub his other arm. He stood there, avoiding eye contact with Lance. Lance looked forward again, keeping his back to both Flinn and Keith. An awkward silence fell, Lance suppressing the bubbling outbursts screaming at him internally. He knew better than to say anything. Flinn cleared his throat, though the silence returned right afterwards.

Lance stayed quiet for a solid three seconds, his thoughts settling. He sucked in a breath and quietly spoke up. “Hey, Keith?”

“Yeah?” Keith replied gently.

“Does uh, the kissing that we have to do to fuse -- does that mean anything to you?” Lance stammered slowly and quietly, still refusing to look at him.

Keith’s voice caught as he tried to answer, then cautiously he questioned, “What do you mean?”

Lance sucked in another breath, his heart feeling numb. “Nevermind. I’m all over the place too I guess.” He shifted, shoving one hand in his pocket and walking towards the doors again while mumbling under his breath, “Of course it doesn’t mean anything. I’m nothing like Flinn, and now that he’s back, I have no chance.”

“What was that? You were mumbling,” Keith commented, though Lance wasn’t going to repeat himself. He opened the door, Keith calling out his name, but the doors closed behind him as the name left Keith’s mouth.

Lance got into his car, thoughts beginning to bubble again while his heart progressively sunk and chilled. It was as though ice water replaced his blood, all of his thoughts depressing himself. His skin was starting to feel tight and his muscles felt stiff. He turned on the radio in hopes of helping himself feel a bit more like himself, but sadly it didn’t phase him as he drove home. He parked in the driveway of his family’s small home grocer, trudging in to find Sera and Corinne in the kitchen. Lance could really go for a cookie, and that was what Sera was taking a platter of out of an oven. At least one thing went his way that day. Lance grinned as Corinne smiled and waved vigorously at Lance, then stretching her arms upwards and squeezing her hands. Lance smiled as he picked Corinne up and planted a kiss on her forehead.

He looked to Sera and didn’t receive a warm expression, instead a solemn one, causing his own to fade. She shook her head slightly while assumably forcing a smile, putting the platter down next to an empty plate without saying anything. She transferred the cookies over and then asked, “Corrine, could you please bring this outside to your grandma and grandpa?”

Lance’s heart stopped. His face dropped, he froze, and his mind went blank.

Corrine’s grandparents were Sera and Coran’s parents. Their parents hated Lance.

Sera cleared her throat, snapping Lance out of his horrified trance. “Lance, you’ll need to put Corinne down.”

“Right,” he said blankly as he crouched down and set Corinne on her feet.

Sera looked at him with a sorry frown before grinning again and handing the plate off to Corinne, who simply smiled and trotted off. She then sighed, looking at Lance. “Sorry. I would’ve told you earlier, but your chip was turned off.” She crossed her arms with a small, unhappy huff. “My parents decided to make a surprise visit.”

Lance hesitantly took his chip, hesitant due to now being extremely stiff and shaky. “Are they, uh, staying long?”

“They’ve decided to stay until Wednesday, then head up to their new home in the C District,” Sera explained.

Lance was thankful Voltrago was set up the way it was with the different districts, trains being used to connect everything. They lived in the E District, the second to lowest. F was ground level, on the actual earth -- specifically the desert that the earth had become. E was for common folk. D wasn’t an entirely new platform, rather the taller parts of the buildings in D that the sky trains reached. C was for seniors; all senior home resorts. B was housing for the rich. Most far and hard to get to was A, which was all government buildings. Politicians were housed in B to have the easiest transfer, but there was nothing on the island of A besides buildings closed off to the public. Everything anyone needed was in E, including the small nation’s hall and court, shopping malls, business buildings, restaurants, shopping buildings, and grocers, as well as much more. The higher the letter, the smaller the island. Voltrago was a nation of floating islands.

Lance let out a sigh, knowing what to do. He dialed Tsuyu’s number, heading to his room to find his personal suitcase and start packing.

“Hey, why’d you leave so suddenly?” Tsuyu answered the phone.

“Are you at home?” Lance asked, setting his chip on his bed and opening his drawers to choose what clothes he was bringing.

“Yeah, Katie took me home. She’s here with me. Why do you ask? What happened?” Tsuyu questioned worriedly.

“Well, for one, Keith pushed me over the edge,” Lance grumbled, neatly placing four days’ worth of outfits into his suitcase.

“And?”

“Guess who decided to pay a surprise visit.”


	9. In Some Way

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short chapter after all that wait, sorry guys  
> it didn't feel right to continue it after that note though, so i've already started the next chapter  
> hope y'all like these idiots in this idiot's world

Tsuyu’s apartment was on the other side of District E in a different suburban area, which was an annoying drive. The drive typically took about two hours to get to from Sera’s house  _ without  _ traffic, meaning he didn’t arrive until 6 p.m. The long drive was normally always frustrating tp Lance because he adored going to Tsuyu’s place, so he was always eager to get there quicker. Tsuyu’s apartment was always quite neat and organized. It was also nicely decorated, with potted plants he took good care of on any opening of a shelf or a counter or coffee table. Lance loved just being in the atmosphere of Tsuyu’s apartment; it was such a comforting space. And with the fight with Keith lingering over him as he also dealt with a surprise visit from his grandparents, he was extremely grateful to go to Tsuyu’s apartment.

Except for one factor, which was as soon as he walked in the door, his face got pelted with a pillow.

“Keith went  _ berserk! _ What were you thinking?! Can’t you not be a drama queen for  _ one day?! _ ” Katie screeched with fire in her eyes and a nasty scowl, pelting more pillows from Tsuyu’s couch as she stood on it.

“Katie! Get off my couch! I specifically told you not to do that when Lance walked through the door!” Tsuyu called from another room, assumably the kitchen.

Lance smirked, brushing off what Katie said and letting go of his suitcase to pick up two of the five pillows she had thrown over. “Oh yeah? Well how about this?” he exclaimed as he threw the pillows back, the first one only hitting Katie’s knees and causing her to put her hands on her hips, though the second one hit her smack dab in the middle of her face as she was opening her mouth.

“Lance! I swear I will kill you one of these days!” Katie said as she pulled the pillow away from her face and got down off the couch, picking up the pillow that had bounced onto the floor so she had two pillows. Lance’s smirk widened, picking up two more pillows, and both of them got into boxing stances -- only instead of intimidating each other with gloves, they had pillows.

“Guys, cut it out! You’re going to disrupt the neighbors! I don’t need any more complaints; I’ll get kicked out!” Tsuyu cried, running into the living room from the kitchen, wearing a pink apron over a his usual plain t-shirt and khakis, as Lance had predicted. Tsuyu sprinted to the front door, pushing Lance and the suitcase and pillows in so he could shut the door. He stood against the door and let out a loud breath as though he’d been holding one. He began untying the apron as he walked around Lance, placing the apron on the arm of the couch while Lance and Katie simply kept their eyes locked and made small, threatening movements, but didn’t actually do anything.

“You gonna do anything, Pidgeon?” Lance prodded, shifting his stance slightly.

Katie growled. “Pidge is bad enough; don’t call me -- hey!” Tsuyu suddenly pulled a pillow from Katie, then going for the other and starting a tug of war fight.

Lance broke his stance with a sigh, giving up on fooling around and standing up straight. He walked around the yelling Katie and the pulling Tsuyu in order to place the two pillows he had possession of in their rightful spots. He then retrieved his suitcase, watching as Tsuyu got the second pillow from Katie, Katie then storming off and plopping down on the couch. Lance chuckled, sitting down next to her. A grin cracked on her face, giggling herself. Tsuyu still wasn’t amused, arranging the pillows the way he wanted them, then sitting on the other side of Lance.

“Man, you and Keith are both such idiots,” Katie laughed.

Lance’s face dropped into a glare. “Can we not talk about Keith please? I’ve had enough of that emo for one day.” Lance sunk into the couch, hating both Keith and himself for crushing on Keith.

“How about we watch something to calm down?” Tsuyu suggested, picking up a small remote from the glass coffee table placed by the couch’s side, a screen popping up from a small black box set on top of a short, wide bookcase in between two tall ones. The screen’s default channel, of course, was the news channel.

“-- rumored that the government’s labs are working with a young engineer of District E to build a new military weapon as the war with the Marmora Empire approaches, is this true, Dr. Kogane?” the news reporter questioned, sitting at a round table with a tall, yellow-skinned, black-haired, blue-eyed man.

“Yes, it is,” the man answered. “The government has had the opportunity to work with a young genius. I’ve even go as far as to say she is the Einstein of this millennium. Katie Holt is an extravagant, inspiringly intelligent young woman. She’s creating wonders I haven’t had the mind to fathom, and she’s more than half my age,” the man chuckled. “She finished her PH.D. at 19, so it’s no wonder a year later she’s come to work with the government.”

The news channel proved to do the opposite of what Tsuyu had intended it for.

“I was hoping to keep it more of a surprise,” Katie mumbled, sitting up.

“Wait a second, is that Keith’s  _ dad?! _ ” Lance shouted, sitting forward with bulging eyes and his hands clenching his knees.

“Yeah. Keith’s dad is the lead government scientist,” Katie smirked proudly, “who I just signed a contract with based on my one-of-a-kind invention.”

Lance gawked at Katie, continuously pointing between her and the screen.

Tsuyu chuckled. “Yes, Lance, she’s working with the government, specifically with Keith’s dad.”

Lance smiled widely with a squeal, throwing his arms around Katie. “I can’t believe this! My baby’s all grown up and working with the government!”

“Knock it off, I’m only two years younger than you guys,” Katie grumbled, though she leaned into Lance’s side hug and put an arm around him too.

‘We’re proud of you, Katie,” Tsuyu beamed, rubbing her head while Lance rocked her back and forth excitedly in the everlasting hug.

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?!” Lance semi-whined, still squealing over Katie’s accomplishments.

“I didn’t think it was this big a deal,” Katie groaned, clearly not enjoying having her hair messed with and being vigorously moved against her will.

“Of course it is! You’re working with the government! You’re working with--” Lance’s expression and tone suddenly dropped, grumbling, “Keith’s dad.”

“What have you got against the guy now? You two were supposed to make up this morning, that was the whole point of setting you guys up again,” Katie pestered with a scrunched face.

“Maybe we didn’t want to be set up, you ever thought of that?” Lance huffed, glaring at Katie.

“How else were we supposed to get him to talk to you?” Tsuyu questioned calmly, a gentle expression of worry and confusion painted on his face.

“I don’t know, maybe by  _ not _ inviting his ex along?” Lance grumbled.

“You know that wasn’t part of our plan. That was an unfortunate coincidence,” Katie insisted with a sigh, tilting her head back and putting her hands over her face.

The three fell silent, none of them knowing what to say. Tsuyu changed the channel to a cooking show. Katie looked as though she were about to cry out of frustration, so Lance found it in himself to put an arm around both her and Tsuyu, sipping in a breath before speaking. “Thank you for trying to help from the beginning, but I don’t think I’m cut out for this.”

Tsuyu hummed, “Thanks for the appreciation,” while Katie immediately jumped to, “Cut out for what?”

Lance tightened his arms around them, grinning sorrowfully. “This kind of dancing. I don’t know how you two are able to be fusing partners and not be totally invested in each other.”

“Are you forgetting how gay Katie is?” Tsuyu laughed.

“And how far Tsuyu has fallen for Shanelle,” Katie added.

Tsuyu reached over Lance to playfully push Katie, both of them laughing. Lance couldn’t help but join in as they all started nudging each other and laughing. They settled down after about a minute, ending up with Katie and Tsuyu leaning on Lance and Lance resting his head against Tsuyu’s. All of them had arms around each other.

“Hey, guys?” Lance sighed happily, not thinking very hard and letting his anxiety and anger drift away as they cuddled.

“Yeah?” Tsuyu responded aloud while Katie simply looked up at Lance with a hum. Tsuyu pulled his head away to look at Lance too.

Lance breathed in a breath, smoothly letting it out to gently say, “I think I love Keith.”

Tsuyu gasped, then squealed, while Katie shook her head in surprise, gawking at Lance with an open mouth that turned into a smile.

“No way! For real?” Tsuyu shrieked through his massive smile. Lance nodded, and in return Tsuyu squished his cheek against Lance’s and hugged more tightly with another squeal.

“I told you so!” Katie laughed, nudging Lance with her elbow. “I know you two would adore each other!”

Lance’s heart sank. Keith adoring him was a thought Lance couldn’t wrap his head around. He let his weight fall back into the couch, parting himself somewhat from Tsuyu and Katie. “He ignored me for an entire week. I don’t think he adores me.”

Tsuyu and Katie exchanged glances, Katie nodding and Tsuyu grinning.

“Keith’s probably struggling with his feelings,” Tsuyu reassured.

“He’s an avoidant person; he probably doesn’t know how to talk about it,” Katie rationalized.

“He hasn’t given any signs of liking me in any way but as a dance partner.” Lance sank deeper into the couch cushion. “And even that’s a bit of a stretch.”

There was a quick pause before Katie spoke up to ask, “Have you been trying to hide your feelings from him?”

Lance gave her a ‘ _ seriously?’ _ expression. “Yeah, duh. All the guy does is argue or dance with me. There’s no reason to hint that I want to hold him and kiss him and have it mean something if he for sure doesn’t want that too,” Lance ranted.

“Have you asked him?” Tsuyu softly questioned.

“No,” Lance scoffed. “Have you asked Shanelle?”

“Touche,” Tsuyu chuckled with bright cheeks, staring off into space.

“Ugh, he’s gone into fantasizing-about-Shanelle land,” Katie groaned. She let out a sigh, turning her attention back to Lance. “You should talk to him. He hasn’t dropped hints, but neither have you. I can’t think of any other good reasons for him avoiding you.” She smiled up at Lance.

“I agree!” Tsuyu cheered, snapping out of his thoughts of Shanelle with a single nod and a definitive expression that easily melted into a smile.

Lance cracked a smile, his heart warming and his blood pumping. “I’ll go try talking to him.”

Katie pumped her fist, exclaiming, “Yeah, go Lance!”

Tsuyu gave Lance a squeeze before letting him get up. “Want us to come with?”

Lance shook his head as he stood up. “I want to talk to him alone.”

Tsuyu looked like a proud mother, putting his hands over his heart. Katie looked psyche with a sparkle in her eyes, excited while most likely pondering hopeful outcomes for Lance speaking with Lance. Lance looked back at them with a confident smile as he opened the door to Tsuyu’s apartment. “I’ll be back for dinner.”

“Go get him!” Katie yelled as Lance shut the door.

Lance whispered to himself, “What would I do without you two?” as he walked away from the door and down to his car.

It was a good thing Tsuyu typically ate late in the day seeing as the drive from Tsuyu’s apartment to Keith’s was an hour and a half. During the drive, Lance’s confidence strengthened and faded as he played out what he was going to say over and over again, his excitement overall growing. He finally got to park, hopped out of his car, marched up to Keith’s door, took a deep breath, and knocked. His blood burned under his itching skin as he waited for Keith to come let him in. He could barely stay still and nearly jumped when he heard the door unlock and prepared himself for the next second -- with the door opened.

He’d played out the scene enough, accounting for many different factors. He was prepared.

He was prepared for talking to Keith, but not a wet-haired, only-wearing-boxers Keith.

He leaned in the doorway, pushing curly wet bangs out of his face so Lance could see his brown eyes. “Hey, I was about to call and ask if you want to practice, so good timing.”

“I made the reservation. See you tomorrow? I’ll pick you up,” another voice jumped in, wet-haired but fully dressed Flinn walking up to the doorway and kissing Keith’s forehead. He noticed Lance and smiled his way. “Oh hey, fella! You left in a huff earlier. Everything good?”

All of the warmth in Lance’s body left. All of his confidence shattered entirely. His heart sank further than his feet. His smile faltered, though he forced it back out. “Yep. Everything perfectly fine,” he lied in a normal one. He’d lied enough in his life for this to be pretty easy, despite how hard it felt to stand straight and look at the two of them.  _ Work now, cry later. _

“Alrighty, I’ll leave you to it then.” Flinn ruffled the wet mop atop Keith’s head and squeezed past Lance, disappearing.

Lance focused on Keith, who was simply standing there with his typical blankness. Lance stepped in and shut the door, allowing his smile to fall and narrowing his eyes at Keith. He paused, Keith raising an eyebrow at him with crossed arms as he still leaned against the wall. “Please tell me you  _ did not _ fuck him.” He was genuinely asking, hoping deep down that there was some other possible explanation. Of course, he voiced it as though he was just an upset friend.

“What do you want me to tell you instead?” Keith turned and headed towards his room. “I’ll put something on, then we’ll talk.”

Lance was ready to walk out the door, but the tiny ounce of hope even Keith admitting he slept with Flinn couldn’t crush kept him in front of the door. He sighed to himself, giving in, and plopped down on Keith’s couch as he waited for Keith to be done. He contemplated getting up and walking out the door over and over again, staring at the door while waiting, but he couldn't get himself to leave. He felt there was too much to talk about for him to get up and leave, despite how distinctly he thought talking to Keith wouldn't end very well. Especially after all that had played out.

“What are we going to do exactly? We don't have very long until the competition and we still haven't figured out a way to fuse without kissing,” Keith started as he walked into the room, running a hand through his hair and ruffling it. He’d shoved his glasses on instead of wearing his purple contacts and had simply thrown on a black t-shirt and some gray sweatpants.

“I don’t… actually know,” Lance stammered blankly, shutting his mouth and thinking. Nothing came to mind as alternatives to kissing, seeing as nothing else worked thus far, and he couldn’t think of anything for them to actually do. He’d come to talk, not dance, but since talking wasn’t an option, dancing it was. That meant ideas didn’t come easily.

“Well, in competitions, we don’t choose the songs we dance to. Allura chooses for us.” Keith stood back up, stretching his arms around his head. “Maybe practicing freestyling together would be a good use of time.”

Lance let relief flow through him. Practicing freestyling didn’t mean they had to kiss -- which right now, Lance wasn’t sure he could handle. He stood up, smirking as he playfully bowed and held out a hand while looking up at Keith.

Keith gave him a puzzled look. “Lance, what are you doing?”

In the most ridiculously serious tone he could muster, he asked, “May I have this dance, fair maiden?”

“What the hell, Lance,” Keith sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and crossing an arm. “I’m not a maiden.”

Lance sighed with an eyeroll, keeping himself bowed with an outstretched hand. “No one can reject Prince Idiot of Dumbland. Not even the Emo Grumpy Troll of the Caves of Assholes.”

Keith snorted, gently placing his hand in Lance’s. “Wasn’t it Guardian of the Caves of Asshole-ness?”

“Details, details.” Lance laughed lightly while standing up and stepping closer to Keith, putting an arm around Keith’s waist as they started waltzing randomly.

“And the people of Dumbland don’t know that the term is defuse, not un-fuse,” Keith went on. “And the music makes people’s ears bleed. The trolls, on the other hand, all wear black and occasionally red, since they’re goth assholes.”

Lance laughed, keeping his eyes on their feet as they waltzed around Keith’s living room. “How do you remember all that?”   
Keith shrugged, the next moment Lance finding his head being bashed into.

Both of them hissed and pulled apart, holding their heads.

“Sorry, I thought I had room to look down,” Keith said, groaning in pain as he rubbed his forehead.

Lance rubbed the back of his head, glaring. “Emo Grumper.”

Keith rolled his eyes, though both of them ended up breaking into laughter rather than arguing. This time, Keith held out a hand. “Shall we try again and make a peace treaty between our kingdoms?”

Lance scoffed, taking Keith’s hand and returning to waltzing while talking. “If you can call what you rule over a kingdom.”

“A cave is as good as any castle, and a mountain is as good as any village,” Keith insisted.

“At least a castle and a village isn’t as intimidating or gloomy,” Lance pointed out, this time keeping his eyes up. Keith kept his up, too.

“At least a cave isn’t cut off from commoners,” Keith argued back.

The ridiculous conversation and pointless waltzing went on for twenty minutes. During those wondrous twenty minutes, Lance couldn’t be upset. He couldn’t help but feel relaxed and was enjoying himself. It was much better to be alone with Keith again, specifically dancing and talking nonsense with him. Somehow, it was as though this was somewhat Keith’s apology between the lines -- the lines of how their kingdoms wage war together and win using their peoples’ strengths and weaknesses. It eased Lance.

What broke the waltzing wasn’t Lance.

“I need some water,” Keith croaked, his voice scratchy from all the laughing and occasional yelling. None of their yelling had been angry anyway, rather banter-like and resulting in more laughter.

They broke apart, Keith heading over to his fridge to get a drink. Lance plopped down on the couch as his enjoyment faded. He’d been enjoying himself and only falling harder; he wasn’t helping himself any. He wanted to talk with Keith about his feelings, but Keith having slept with Flinn and apparently having a date the next day wasn't reassuring enough for Lance to have any courage. Lance couldn’t feel good about himself at all with Flinn back. Hell, he couldn’t think anything of himself with Flinn in Keith’s life.

A bottle suddenly landed on Lance’s chest harshly, causing Lance to grunt while securing the bottle in his hand.

“Thought you might need one.” Keith sat down next to him, finishing the last of his own.

Lance forced a grin, then popping open the bottle and chugging it all. He could’ve used any type of energy in that moment. He let out a breath after finishing, quietly thanking Keith and placing the empty bottle on the coffee table.

“What’s so special about Flinn?” Lance blurted without thinking.

Especially without thinking, seeing as he wanted to gut himself for mentioning Flinn.

Keith paused, his expression blank, not a muscle moving. After that pause, he simply shrugged. He didn’t say anything.

Lance was fine with Keith saying nothing. He had enough screams running through his head that he didn’t necessarily want to be spoken to. He took a deep breath and recollected his mind, clearing his throat and standing up. “We, uh, may as well just try to fuse and dance while fused. The competition’s close, so…”

_ Wait, fusing means we have to kiss. _

He quickly regretted suggesting that, but it was too late. Keith was already on his feet, turning the radio on.

_ Well, fuck. _

Keith put out his hand with a smirk. “Shall we dance in celebration of our cooperation?”

Lance couldn't help but grin. “Absolutely.” Lance simply shook Keith’s hand.

The two stationed themselves side by side. Lance stood with his arms crossed over his chest so he could hold his shoulders and Keith simply putting a hand on his hip, using his other hand to turn the radio on and then placing the remote down to put his free hand on the back of his neck.

Bring Me To Life by Evanescence came on and Lance  _ was not  _ okay with it.

“Keith, this isn't a song we can dance to,” Lance complained, walking over to Keith’s stack of CD’s, which were all old, cracked cases with extremely faded cover pages. He clicked the radio off as he clicked his own tongue and scanned the names of the bands Keith owned albums of.

“Hey, that’s still a good song,” Keith insisted, walking over and blankly stared Lance down.

After picking up a Dua Lipa album, Lance glanced over and narrowed his own eyes with a frown. Still looking at Lance, Keith turned the radio back on. Looking at Keith, Lance reached over and turned the radio back off. Keith immediately turned it back on, narrowing his eyes at Lance. Lance did the same in return. Keith turned it on, Lance turned it off, Keith turned it on, Lance turned it off, Keith turned it on again, and Lance got upset enough he slapped Keith’s hand away.

“New Rules is something we can easily dance to,” Lance insisted angrily, standing in front of the radio so Keith couldn't get to it and with very sharp movements taking the Evanescence CD out to replace it with the Dua Lipa CD.

Keith groaned but didn’t argue. Lance counted it as a point for himself. They silently got back into the same positions, Lance turning the radio on and placing the remote down as it loaded. The music started, and suddenly, it was as though both of them had walked into a world with color -- if they were living in one without color before the music. Both of them worked seamlessly, with hands on and off of each other and somehow all their movements working together. It was a feeling Lance had needed, a feeling of togetherness. It made Lance’s heart pump and his smile beam. His whole body felt warm and electrified. It was exhilarating.

Exhilarating enough that, while Lance was holding Keith as the song neared its end, Lance went in for the kiss himself.

The lights swarmed around them, dispersing for the neverending darkness where Lance pulled away from Keith fully. Keith’s eyes nearly fell out of his head.

“That was… sudden,” Keith choked, then shaking his head slightly and running a hand through his hand.

Lance put a hand on the back of his neck and laughed nervously, looking at his feet. “Sorry, I was, uh… in the moment, I guess?”

Keith chuckled. “At least that still works.” Lance looked up to find Keith grinning at him, which caused Lance to crack a small grin himself.   
“I. Hate. Both of you.”

Both their grins fell, their eyes redirecting to the being sitting on the edge of a cloud floating towards them.

“Don’t worry, we hate you too,” Lance easily responded, putting his hands on his hips while Keith simply glared the being down.

“Do you  _ see _ this?!” Klance yelled, pulling at their pants. “I just  _ had _ to get stuck with Mr. Emo’s sweatpants while I got Mr. Prince’s boring blue shirt. This outfit  _ does not _ work, you hear me?”

“If it bothers you so much, change it,” Keith grumbled.

“I can’t! A gray t-shirt and jeans would have been my first choice, but I don’t have power over that,” Klance whined, flopping back on their cloud as their cloud stopped in front of them.

“Look man, I’m all for fashion talk,” Lance stated, putting a hand in the middle of his chest as he spoke, “but we have serious business to discuss.” Lance returned his hand to his hip.

Klance popped up, putting an elbow on their knee and placing their chin on their hand with a pensive look. “Mm, about the competition next week?”

“You exist, so we don’t need to control this body while competing,” Keith jumped in.

Lance nodded in agreement, though he knit his eyebrows and glanced at Keith. “How did you-”

“Oh come on, Prince Idiot, that thought isn’t  _ your _ original idea,” Klance sassed. They then sighed. “Depends on how I’m feeling, really.” A sly smile bloomed. “I very well could have taken over that first night without showing myself, but it was much more entertaining sitting back and watching you two work this body.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me! You said it was about strength!” Lance screeched angrily, acknowledging their need for the being but he about ready to strangle them.

Keith actually was going to, taking a step forward and reaching his arms out. Lance put a hand on Keith’s arm, pulling him back. “We need it,” Lance mumbled to Keith, both of them then groaning.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take over for the competition. The body has always been strong enough for me to use it on my own,” Klance ensured, waving a hand and grinning. “It’ll be fun getting to strut my stuff in front of an audience. Oh, how invigorating it’ll be.”

Lance rolled his eyes and Keith put his hand on his face.

“The strength thing was just a lie after all,” Lance sighed. He then turned to Keith. “Should we just… defuse now?”

Keith looked over and shrugged. “There’s nothing else for us to do here except listen to this jackass.”

“I’m partially you, might I remind you,” Klance hissed.

Lance simply put a hand out, ignoring Klance’s point. Keith took his hand with a grin. They pulled in close, Lance whispering a countdown starting at 3, and then they separated, turning to face opposite directions and finding themselves back in Keith’s living room immediately.

Lance leaned back, placing the back of his head on top of Keith’s as their backs touched. “They’re unbearable. I wish we weren’t stuck with them.”

Keith chuckled. “It could always be worse.”

Lance hummed, trying to think of something that’d make dealing with Klance worse.

“If they pestered us like Katie does.”

Keith chuckled again, shifting slowly so that Lance knew to straighten himself as Keith turned around and headed to the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of beer, calling over, “You want one?”

Lance shrugged with a grin, shifting in his spot on the couch to make himself more comfortable. “Sure, why not?” he sighed relaxedly, putting his arms behind his head and leaning his head back so his arms rested on the back of the couch. He stared up at the ceiling, his grin fading.

_ Why am I not leaving? _

He knew it would most likely have been best if he’d left already. But then again, what harm could one drink and a little talk do? He’d originally wanted to talk. Now, with the new Flinn developments, there was even more to talk about. He yearned to know Keith’s true feelings, both of himself, Lance, and of Flinn. He yearned to know Keith’s idea of what their partnership really was; were they really good friends? Was Lance anything more to Keith than a certain Prince Idiot he has to dance with?

A bottle waved in his face, Keith looking down at Lance while holding the bottle over Lance’s eyes and shaking it lightly. Lance grinned again, ridding himself of his offsetting thoughts and taking the bottle. Keith sat down while Lance straightened and popped open his bottle. They sat in silence for a good few, uncomfortable seconds. At least, Lance felt uncomfortable as he took a sip of his beer and glanced over at Keith. His uncomfortableness only increased as he watched Keith chug an entire bottle down in three seconds and set the bottle down on the coffee table, then humming as he sat back.

Lance stared him down, wide-eyed. He shook his head, deciding not to engage in asking where the hell Keith learned to chug a beer or why the hell Keith would chug a beer. He simply took another sip of his head, afterwards sinking in his seat, slowly swirling his bottle as Keith got up and went to the fridge to take out another bottle of beer.

“Do you know what you’re going to wear to the competition?” Lance questioned, looking over at Keith and attempting to start a conversation.

Keith shrugged without looking up, instead rummaging through the fridge. “Have you eaten yet?”

“No,” Lance answered plainly, taking another sip of his beer.

Keith shut the fridge door, instead opening a cupboard. “How about mac and cheese?”

Lance’s expression soured as he looked into his beer bottle. “Mac and cheese and beer  _ do not _ go together.”

Keith sighed. “Fine, how about chicken noodle soup? Because those are what I’ve got.”

Lance sighed himself, walking over and nudging Keith with his hip. “I’m sure I can do something better.”

Keith rolled his eyes, popping open his second bottle of beer and chugging it all too. “Whatever you say, Prince.”

“Troll,” Lance grumbled, going through everything Keith had at the moment that could possibly turn into something tolerable to drink beer with. He pulled out a box of unopened pasta and shrugged, putting it on the counter and digging through Keith’s herbs and spices next. “I can whip up something with pasta.”

Keith groaned and went back to the couch, leaving Lance to cook. Keith turned on the television, and they didn’t speak a word to each other. This silence was someone relaxing, Lance found. Both of them were doing their own things, but near each other, so it didn’t feel as awkward as normal empty silences Lance felt urgent to talk during. He simply went about continuing his cooking, and once he was done ten minutes later, he made their bowls and plopped down next to Keith to join in watching. The silence continued as they ate and watched a reality tv show, which Lance enjoyed. Though the reality show sucked, he was enjoying just being around Keith.

He placed his bowl down, picking up the rest of his beer and taking a sip, then blurting, “I am totally getting jazzed up for the competition.”

Keith snorted in a sudden, unhappy exhale. “The fuck is ‘jazzed up’ in your world?”

Lance scoffed. “Makeup, nails, fashion-forward clothing, of course! Why wouldn’t you clean up for an important social event you’re attending with close friends?”

Keith raised his eyebrows at Lance, pausing. “This counts?”

Lance shrugged, feeling his cheeks get warm as his heart pounded.  _ Don’t say too much, _ he reminded himself. “Why not? We’re dancing together. Against another pair. In front of an audience. To get money.” He took another sip of his beer to ease himself from his stammering thoughts and choppy sentences. “I’m pretty sure this counts.”

Keith turned to his beer, staring at what was left of what was now his third beer -- which was close to nothing. “It’s just dancing with me until…  _ it _ takes over,” he murmured.

Lance didn’t think, he just did. He put one leg on the couch to hoist himself up a bit, leaning over and taking Keith’s chin with his thumb and pointer finger, tilting Keith’s face up. Lance stared into Keith’s purple contacts, the brown of his natural eyes showing in thin lines up close. Lance found them mesmerizing. He choked up for a second, then somehow got a very sure, very confident low tone.

“Dancing with you is what makes it so important.”

He let Keith go and slumped back into his own spot on the couch, taking another sip of his second beer. He glanced over to find Keith staring at him, wide-eyed, eyebrows up. Lance cleared his throat, putting his half-empty bottle down and easily slipping Keith’s bottle out of his fingers. He also grabbed the bowls, silently standing up and retreating to the kitchen area to put everything away. He washed the bowls without being asked.

It was a good way to hide how much he was internally freaking out. Once he was done with the dishes, he stayed at the sink, putting his hands on the counter while leaning his legs against the cupboards.

Keith slowly came over after a good ten seconds, grabbing another beer from the fridge and taking a simple swig. Then Lance suddenly had arms around him and a face on his shoulder, a nearly-full beer bottle next to his half-empty bottle. Lance froze. His heart raced. It was just a hug, but Lance was confused about what to do. It was a hug from behind, with a face buried in his shoulder. That was different than a normal hug. Totally different.

Indistinct murmuring vibrated into his bone through his shirt.

Lance paused, waiting for anything more distinct before asking, “Did you say something?”

There was a groan, Keith retreating his arms and lifting himself off Lance. “Dancing with you is important to me too,” he said quietly, then putting his back to Lance’s, Keith’s hair soft against Lance’s neck.

There was a moment of silence as Lance stopped thinking and picked up his beer, gulping some of it down and sighing while putting it back. “Was Flinn a dance partner, too?”

“No,” Keith answered blankly. “He left me because he found out I hung out at the arena. He’s a Normie.”

Lance snorted. “That’s a dick move.”   
“Totally. He was such a dick,” Keith agreed, reaching a hand behind him -- to Lance’s side. Lance looked down to see Keith clench his fist twice.

Lance assumed that was Keith’s signal for his beer, so he handed it off while continuing the conversation. “Why are you with him if he’s such a dick?”

Keith sighed. Lance could hear Keith chugging the rest of his beer, which was confirmed for sure when an empty bottle was put onto Lance’s shoulder for him to place back on the counter. “Because dicks wrap you up in ribbons and leave you to die. But, before they wrap you up, they’re a sort of… kind. Caring. They’re totally misleading and pull you right back in when you’re in a bad state.”

Lance became puzzled, but he took Keith’s empty bottle and put it down for him. “You’re… in a bad state?”

Nothing came from Keith in response.

“Is that why you didn’t talk to me for a week?”

“Yeah… pretty much.”

Lance leaned his head back, resting the back of his head against the top of Keith’s and staring at the ceiling. Lance thought for a moment before saying anything more. “You shouldn’t go on that date with Flinn.”

“I can’t back out now. That’d make me the dick.”

Lance couldn’t help but snort. “You ignored me for a week. You’re an Emo Troll. You’re already a dick.”

That got a small laugh out of Keith. “I guess I am.”

Lance grinned, closing his eyes. He softly reassured, “We all are in some way. Don’t worry.”

“In some way…” Keith repeated, mumbling, then sighing and moving away. He went back to the couch and sat down to watch more of the stupid reality show.

Lance kept his grin, walking over with his beer.

Before he knew it, Keith was asleep with his head against Lance’s shoulder and Lance was asleep with his head resting on Keith’s, his half-empty bottle sitting on the coffee table.

And before he knew it, he woke up to knocking on the door, which then led to having his face pelted with a pillow by a particular shortie with blonde curls.

Again.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoyed!!  
> if you want to talk to me and/or get information on updates, you can find me on instagram or tumblr! (i'm more active on insta, but i do check tumblr almost every day)  
> don't be afraid to shoot me a message!  
> insta: nutter.bean  
> tumblr: nutter-bean


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